Is The Metaverse Already Dead? The Birth Of ChatGPT
Image: Visualisation of the Metaverse on DALLE based on a prompt generated by ChatGPT
When Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook to Meta, he presented the Metaverse as the centrepiece of his company's future. The Metaverse was presented as a seamless convergence of our physical and digital lives, creating a unified, virtual community where we can work, play, relax, transact and socialise. It is a mixed reality. The announcement promised major investments in the Metaverse. The idea of the Metaverse has been teased through virtual reality experiences like a concert held by Ariana Grande in Fortnite or games launched in Roblox by McCain. These give us an insight into what the Metaverse might look like in the future but as of now, it is only accessible by a few due to the expensive tools required.
What is the Metaverse?
It is designed to be a mixed reality world where augmented reality and real life work together. It's believed to move the nature of goods and services into an AR world and help us engage with brands in a completely new way. Some say that the Metaverse already exists in online platforms like Roblox and Sandbox and that the rebranding of Facebook to Meta does not mean an invention of the concept.
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will be laying off 10,000 employees and ending low-priority projects. That has caused a stir, making people wonder if the Metaverse is already dead even before it is developed. Although, he hasn’t mentioned if Metaverse is one of those low-priority projects. One thing is for sure, the hype that Metaverse generated is slowly dying down. The google search trends show that the interest in the search term peaked during the rebranding but is now at the same level as it was before the announcement. However, that does not give us any substantial proof as to whether the developments have stopped or not. Perhaps the reason for the decreased excitement surrounding the Metaverse is the lack of clarity around its accessibility.
Since then, the new buzz has been the Generative AI, ChatGPT. ChatGPT acts as an AI language model trained to understand and respond in human language. Fascination with what Generative AI can do and using it has become much more commonplace because of its accessible nature. ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its latest development, ChatGPT-4, as it's been proven capable of things like designing websites, games, passing bar exams, and much more. Some argue that even though the excitement has tapered off, it doesn't mean that the Metaverse is not going ahead. The Metaverse, like most things, was once the "shiny new thing," but now that attention is on ChatGPT, it's been talked about less. "Are you still talking about the Metaverse?" has become a common comment every time someone brings it up now. We as consumers easily move on to the next big thing. If the Metaverse is worth the hype that Mark Zuckerberg promised, he has to do a lot to keep us engaged with its developments. But as of now, ChatGPT is clearly the shiny new thing and more accessible than the Metaverse.
However, in considering the potential of the Metaverse and ChatGPT, it's important not to view them as an either/or proposition. While ChatGPT may currently be the focus of excitement, it could also be a valuable tool for the Metaverse's development. We shouldn't imply that the existence and usage of one excludes the other. If the Metaverse is to fulfil the promise of being a seamless convergence of physical and digital realities, it will likely require a range of tools, including advanced AI like ChatGPT. The key will be to keep people engaged and interested in these developments, regardless of which shiny new thing happens to be in the spotlight at any given moment.
Asking ChatGPT if Metaverse is already dead…
(P.S.: ChatGPT’s knowledge is only limited till 2021, so the answer might not be 100 %accurate).
