Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse bet and the rise of AI
When Mark Zuckerberg put all his eggs in one basket with the further development of the Meta Quest headsets (formerly Oculus Quest) and the Metaverse concept, the growing popularity of AI initially seemed to call his “VR and Metaverse” strategy into question.
As a reminder: Meta Quest 2 was released in September 2020, Facebook’s parent company was renamed Meta around a year later in October 2021. Until the end of 2022, however, Meta’s share price only moved in one direction: downwards.
Source: https://www.finanzen.net/
The turning point: ChatGPT, OpenAI and the comeback of Meta
However, with the explosive rise of ChatGPT and OpenAI from the end of 2022, the Meta share made a brilliant comeback. How can this change of course be explained?
Initially, the prevailing opinion was that Zuckerberg had miscalculated his VR strategy and that the metaverse and related developments, such as VR headsets, only had limited potential. The conventional wisdom was that the future belonged to AI.
But Meta itself has had promising AI projects for years. And many quickly realized that AR glasses (the bulky term “headset” is increasingly being avoided in favour of the more elegant “goggles”, although they are still a bulky device on the head) could be the perfect interface to voice-controlled AI.
AR glasses as an AI interface: Google’s Astra project
This is also underlined by Google’s reactivation of its Glasses project, which now operates under the name Astra and impressively demonstrates how useful AR glasses – or rather AI glasses – can be in combination with AI such as Gemini: The Google Astra project and the new Glasses
Source: Google (screenshot)
Conclusion: AI and XR in interaction
The initial scepticism towards Meta’s metaverse strategy quickly gave way to the realization that AI and XR are not mutually exclusive, but rather synergistically linked. AR glasses equipped with intelligent AI could become indispensable tools in various areas of our lives in the near future.
Meta’s investments in AI and XR could therefore prove to be forward-looking and enable the company to take a pioneering role in the development of these innovative technologies. After all, AI and XR could turn out to be a perfect match …
