A few months ago, I received a Wunderman Thompson’s newsletter in which, as if it were a chapter in Black Mirror, it affirmed the existence of a mixed physical-virtual universe called Metaverse. With intrigue, I searched on the internet and found out that Facebook would become a Metaverse company rather than a social media one, so they were planning to hire 10,000 people to work in it. Another news said that the video game developer and publisher Epic Games, owner of the popular Fortnite, got a $ 1 billion investment to develop their Metaverse. These companies and many more have followed the same vision. So, what is the metaverse? Why are these tech giants so interested in it? What does AI have to do with all of this? Well, I will tell you how both humans and machines are shaping the Metaverse.
What is the Metaverse?
To give you an idea about Metaverse, I will give you an example with films such as Ready Player One or Avatar. In both, the characters live in an earthly world, like the one we live in. However, in both, the characters are aware that their reality has two worlds or realities which share the consequences of what happens in each other. For example, in Ready Player One, there is a virtual world called Oasis which you access through gadgets that let you live and interact with that world. In Avatar, there is the planet Pandora in which humans can transfer their consciousness through a capsule to a humanoid being living on the planet. These films show that what happens in Oasis or Pandora has a direct effect on reality, and it is because both Oasis and Pandora have been merged into a single entity with our world. Today there is no clear definition of the Metaverse, but for me, it is every experience that can be constantly shaped and replicated in both the virtual and the physical world, reprogramming beings and machines.
Ready Player One movie
These films can give a sense of some properties and characteristics that the Metaverse will address in the future and that has been mapped in a report by Wunderman Thompson, highlighting 9 key characteristics:
Mapping the Metaverse by Wunderman Thompson
All these 9 ingredients will allow us to go further in our world, from a passive participation of digital content to a totally active and inclusive one, where each action we make will affect our physical and virtual environment simultaneously.
A human – machine tendency
But why large companies have invested so much in the development of this Metaverse? It is because the increase in social networks, entertainment, and technological advances such Blockchain and AI that have being immerse in our everyday activities.
The lockdown promoted and reassured the use of digital platforms as alternative means to entertain, socialize, shop, work and more. We have made these digital means part of us. This is reflected in data collected by Wunderman Thompson, where 61% of the surveyed say that their nowadays life is technology dependent. Jon Radoff, an American entrepreneur, explains the impact of the Metaverse in our lives through human-machine trends:
Virtual Mainstreaming: People tend to make the digital world as real as the physical world. If you’ve ever played Farmville on Facebook or were on Haboo making friends, you will sense the feeling of reality in these games. Or, to put other examples, Amazon adopted the way of shopping or Netflix watching movies from home. We unconsciously use the digital version of what we do physically in the real world, and we love it. As Beth Kindig writes in her article for Forbes: “If you experience moments where your virtual life online feels as real as your physical life, then you ‘ve dipped your toe into the idea of a Metaverse.”
Avatars at the disco in Haboo
Simulating Reality: As Jon Radoff mentions in his article, we will go beyond the Internet of Things (IoT) to an Internet of Everything. Technological advances let us think that, in the coming years, machines will be able to acquire and process huge amounts of data from our world in real-time, allowing the Persistent and Reactive properties mentioned in the Wunderman Thompson report. In addition, with the arrival of the Nvidia Omniverse, digital twins will allow us to simulate and explore better ways to optimize and operate real objects in much more controlled environments. This allows us to simulate how a factory operates like in BMW, how it feels to live in an apartment in downtown, or to generate military tactics.
Machine Intelligence: AI as the mainstay of the Metaverse
To make real the Metaverse, we need machines to understand us and be reactive to our interaction, and AI has the potential to achieve this. In fact, AI will have a key role in being facilitator of interactions, participant within this universe and support for the human being, getting involved in processes of creativity, automation, security, and privacy, and becoming our best partner. Think of writers like J. K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, who was able to construct a thrilling story in a magical world rich in detail. By reading or watching its movies, we may experience the Harry Potter universe to a certain extent. Instead, if we want to create our own universe and let people be part actively of it, AI will support us in creating compelling stories like we could do in AI Dungeon like tools, forming more realistic characters with Wizard Engine, or speeding up the construction of entire spaces with Promethean AI.
Moreover, it will not only be enough for us to create this new universe, but it should remain attractive and immersive enough so people want to participate and interact in it actively. AI allows us to collect key information that will help us understand our users better and continue to create memorable experiences for them. However, as it is sensitive information on the playground, the Metaverse will involve Blockchain. As suggested by the authors of the article Blockchain and AI Meet in the Metaverse, this technology mix will potentially ensure the transfer of data from each of the users to the Metaverse, to have traceability of who and why the user data has been used and maintain dynamic parameters that reduce vulnerability during encryption.
Illustration about the Promethean AI software
REFERENCES
Calandra, C. (2021, 1 julio). Entering the meta realm. Wunderman Thompson. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/entering-the-meta-realm
Newton, C. (2021, 22 julio). Mark Zuckerberg is betting Facebook’s future on the metaverse. The Verge. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.theverge.com/22588022/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-ceo-metaverse-interview
BBC News. (2021, 18 octubre). Facebook to hire 10,000 in EU to work on metaverse. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58949867
Epic Games. (2021, 13 abril). Announcing a $1 Billion Funding Round to Support Epic’s Long-Term Vision for the Metaverse. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/announcing-a-1-billion-funding-round-to-support-epics-long-term-vision-for-the-metaverse
Epic Games. (s. f.). Fortnite and Travis Scott Present: Astronomical. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/astronomical
Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. (2021, 14 septiembre). New trend report: Into the Metaverse. Wunderman Thompson. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/new-trend-report-into-the-metaverse?j=61174&sfmc_sub=37405083&l=65_HTML&u=4069500&mid=110005021&jb=9008
Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2019, 18 septiembre). The rise of social media. Our World in Data. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
Radoff, J. (2021, 1 noviembre). 9 Megatrends Shaping the Metaverse – Building the Metaverse. Medium. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://medium.com/building-the-metaverse/9-megatrends-shaping-the-metaverse-93b91c159375
Kindig, B. (2021, 3 septiembre). The Key To Unlocking The Metaverse Is Nvidia’s Omniverse. Forbes. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.forbes.com/sites/bethkindig/2021/09/02/the-key-to-unlocking-the-metaverse-is-nvidias-omniverse/?sh=62ca37795e17
NVIDIA. (2021, 1 noviembre). NVIDIA OmniverseTM Platform. NVIDIA Developer. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-omniverse-platform
NVIDIA. (2021a, abril 13). NVIDIA Omniverse – Designing, Optimizing and Operating the Factory of the Future. YouTube. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-DaWgg4zF8
Safian-Demers, E. (2021, 25 marzo). Augmented living. Wunderman Thompson. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/augmented-living
Ankers, A. (2021, 19 octubre). The US Army Is Planning a Huge Experiment With Robot Tanks. IGN. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.ign.com/articles/us-army-robot-tanks-experiment-planned?utm_source=twitter
Jeon, H., Youn, H., Ko, S., & Kim, T. (2021, 3 agosto). Blockchain and AI Meet in the Metaverse. IntechOpen. Recuperado 2 de noviembre de 2021, de https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/77823#B1
Fotos
Epic Records [Travis Scott]. (2020, 26 abril). Travis Scott and Fortnite Present: Astronomical (Full Event Video) [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYeFAlVC8qU
Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. (2021a, septiembre 14). Mapping the Metaverse [Gráfico]. Into the Metaverse. https://www.wundermanthompson.com/insight/new-trend-report-into-the-metaverse?j=61174&sfmc_sub=37405083&l=65_HTML&u=4069500&mid=110005021&jb=9008
Our World in Data. (2019, 18 septiembre). Number of people using social media platforms, 2004 to 2018 [Gráfico]. The rise of social media. https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
Haboo. (s. f.). [Avatars at the disco in Haboo]. Haboo. https://www.habbo.es/playing-habbo/what-is-habbo
Jeon, H., Youn, H., Ko, S., & Kim, T. (2021, 3 agosto). Relationship between the real world and the Metaverse. [Gráfico]. Blockchain and AI Meet in the Metaverse. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/77823#B1
Promethean AI. (2021, 5 marzo). Promethean AI Keynote [Ilustración]. Promethean AI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0MsGWvmzs
Ivan Caballero – AI Designer
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