The metaverse is the rebirth of the internet, and people using it tend to choose avatars who look much younger and slimmer, said Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta. The former Liberal Democrat leader was speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
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The metaverse is widely gaining popularity as tech giants and industry leaders dive in, among them Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Microsoft, Apple, and TikTok developer ByteDance.
“For the last year, I have been holding my weekly meetings on Monday with my team around the world in the metaverse in a product called ‘Workrooms’. Everybody looks suspiciously about 20 years younger and several pounds lighter, that’s the avatars that people tend to choose,” Clegg said at the Summit on Tuesday.
When talking to people in the metaverse while wearing a headset, it can feel as if they are in the same room and breathing the same air, Clegg explained.
“Once you have the headset on and you’re talking to people, you feel you’re breathing the same air in the same room. Because the audio technologies have advanced so much that it’s as if someone is sitting to your right and left and a couple of meters across a large conference table.
“I would urge those who have not experienced it to experience it. You will get an insight into not only what is possible now, but what will be possible in the future, as we move towards a new computing platform based on some immersive sense of presence, regardless of geographical distance,” said Clegg.
To build the metaverse, he explained that a constellation of different companies would be required to built and refine operating systems, hardware, experiences, software, and so on. “It’s like the rebirth of the internet,” Clegg enthused.
Nick Clegg, President, Meta, & Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Remote Work & Digital Applications, UAE, Managing Director, World Government Summit, at a session "AI-augmented Governance: Responsibility & Accountability" Video by: Ahmed Ramzan pic.twitter.com/msfrueuhIT
— Gulf News Video (@GulfNewsVideo) February 14, 2023
Meta’s President of Global Affairs suggested an augmented reality future is still many years away, and that as things start to develop, they will gain their own momentum. Meta, of course, is investing billions in its AI capabilities, with the goal of addressing a whole host of issues – including hate speech.
Removing hate speech, fostering families
Addressing hate speech directly, Clegg stated that moderation efforts mean it’s been reduced to a rate of 0.02% for every ten thousand bits of content people scroll through on Facebook’s newsfeed.
“I wish it could be down to zero, but I think it’s never gonna be zero. But it’s been reduced by around 80%… AI is an extremely powerful tool, going after bad content that we don’t want on our platforms, that users don’t like to see, that advertisers don’t want to see either.”
Clegg suggested that Facebook’s AI allows it to rank content in a way that is most relevant and enjoyable to users.
“For those who use Facebook, every single one of your Facebook feeds are unique to you. It’s like a sort of fingerprint. It’s completely unique. You’re going to see content from your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and parents. That’s the whole point of social media, to foster those links between family and friends. All of that is powered already by AI.”
Meta has expressed a strong desire to be the metaverse’s leader, and the path has been clear since Facebook, Inc. rebranded to “Meta.” The company’s latest AR Engine is said to make it easier for developers to craft engaging augmented reality experiences that work on almost any device.
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