The Metaverse: AI Tech for the Advancement of the Livest of Humans, AI Chatbots, and AI for the Living Room
He announced a number of new features powered by Meta AI tech, including AI chatbots that can help the user brainstorm a birthday party or an AI assistant users can bring into any chat on Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp. And he said Meta would use this technology to advance the metaverse.
The keynote this year was more focused on the living room. “You see the physical room around you,” Zuckerberg promised. Legos can be built on any flat surface in your room. There are games you can play with friends.
“Pretty soon, I think we’re going to be at a point where you’re going to be there physically with some of your friends, and others will be there digitally as avatars or holograms, and they’ll feel just as present as everyone else. You can sit at a table in a meeting. There will be people who are there physically and people who are there digitally as holograms, but also sitting around the table with you are going to be a bunch of AI guys who are embodied as holograms and are helping you get different stuff done too,” he said.
At Connect this year, Zuckerberg emphasized that the modern “real world” combines the physical world and the digital world still being built — and that it all builds up to “this concept we call the metaverse.”
How many people would associate chatbot with the metaverse is not clear. There are places where both 3D world and artificial intelligence intersect. Meta has mentioned, for instance, bots becoming characters in these worlds. But a lot of AI usage right now consists of typing prompts into a text box — it’s a distinctly non-embodied interaction. It seems like Meta has an enthusiasm that isn’t true right now.
Meta can’t abandon the metaverse the way many companies have done. After all, it’s right there in the name. Fortunately, the metaverse has always been a slippery term. Is it a virtual reality device? Is it AI? Is it something similar to video games? The best answer might be that whatever Meta does, it’s the metaverse.
What is Meta and Where is Meta in Gadget Lab? An AI-Technican Talk at the WIRED Silicon Lab Podcast (via Boone Ashworth)
This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED senior AI writer Khari Johnson about the mixed reality hardware Meta announced this week, its voice-controlled smart glasses, its weird new AI chatbots, and where the company sits in the great AI arms race.
Khari wrote a story about Meta. Lauren wrote a story about the upcoming Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
He can be found on social media. LaurenGoode is a person with the same name. Michael Calore is @snackfight. The main hotline was blinged out atGadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). The theme music is by Solar Keys.
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