What will Facebook’s Metaverse look like? Zuckerberg will provide details

(CNN Español) – despite of Research And scandals Currently surrounding Facebook, the social media giant is ready to share more details of the metaverse, or metauniverse, a virtual space where users (through digital avatars) can walk and interact with each other in real time.

Facebook is expected to provide more details about its metaverse during its annual virtual and augmented reality conference, Facebook Connect, which will take place at approximately 1:00 p.m. ET this Thursday.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, indicated that the company’s next step is to become a “Metaverse Corporation.”

“Other than reels and trade, I would also like to share some thoughts on our long-term efforts to build the next computing platform and bring the metaverse to life. This is an important investment area for us and an important part of our strategy for the future,” Zuckerberg said During the conference to present the company’s financial results for the third quarter.

Zuckerberg explained that offering a sense of presence is the “holy grail of online social experiences” and noted that this was what he wanted to create, even before starting with Facebook.

Metaverse is a virtual experience that is well embodied in the feature film.”Ready player one“By Steven Spielberg, where users enter the world of virtual reality and find everything they wish for in real life.

For example, sitting around a virtual conference table with colleagues from all over the world, instead of looking at their two-dimensional faces in a Zoom video call. Then you can walk to a virtual Starbucks to meet your friends who live on the other side of the country.

“If you’re in the metaverse every day, you need different clothing, digital tools, and experiences,” Zuckerberg explained, noting that the metaverse would provide not only a social experience, but also opportunities for commerce.

While Zuckerberg realizes that the metaverse as he envisions it is far from being a reality, the company has been laying the foundations for some time. For example, Facebook recently announced an investment in Horizon, a virtual social scientist that is still in private beta testing. In terms of hardware, the company has Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality glasses and smart glasses.Ray ban stories“.

“There is a whole ecosystem. We are building several generations of our virtual and augmented reality products at the same time, as well as a new operating system, development model, digital commerce platform, content studios, and of course the .social platform,” Zuckerberg added.

Will the metaverse have the same Internet problems?

Supporters of the metaverse say there may eventually be huge commercial potential. A brand new platform for selling digital goods and services. It could also have benefits for the way humans interact using technology.

“What we’re really doing is discovering ways to add technology to our lives to improve it and improve our communication with others,” said Avi Bar-Zeev, founder of virtual and augmented reality consultancy RealityPrime and former Apple employee, Amazon. and Microsoft, where he worked on HoloLens. “It’s not just about conquering a whole new world.”

But there are also a number of concerns about how the metaverse could be used or exploited. Some in the space worry that, on the one hand, the ad-based business model creates people who have and can afford an ad-free helmet or metaverse experience, duplicating the inequalities that exist in the real world.

“I don’t want to see a world where we separate people into those who can have a better experience and those who can’t,” Bar-Zeev said. He added that online harassment can become more severe when users are able to attack each other’s virtual bodies, rather than just exchanging unpleasant words on a screen.

Ball said data privacy and security can also become bigger concerns when “more of our lives, data, work, and investments now reside in a purely virtual form.” And other issues, like misinformation and extremism, can get worse in the metaverse.

“If you can now completely replace someone’s reality with an alternate reality, you can make them believe in anything,” Bar-Zeev said. “Everyone’s responsibility in the field is to prevent bad things as much as possible and encourage good things.”

CNN’s Claire Duffy and Alejandra Ramos contributed to this report.