3% of Metaverse Users Wear a Headset - Tech Insiders News, March 2023
A curated collection of «signal over noise» links about interactive technologies, AI, web3, sense-making, entrepreneurship, and psychology.
- Here’s an interesting metric I saw on Linkedin a few days back: it claims that only 3% of users access the Metaverse using headsets, the rest being on laptops and mobile. Not as surprising as you might think. Here’s why:
First, no sources are mentioned for this graph, so there is a doubt here.
Then, what do they mean by «Metaverse»? The definition is so broad and differs for almost everyone.
Even if not accurate, the ratio seems correct: accessing Virtual Worlds such as Roblox, Spatial, or Zepeto is easier on a standard device than on a headset, and there are more options to choose from. Here’s the takeaway: when designing virtual experiences, we have to remove the friction in order to maximize engagement, and a VR Headset is still one for many people, both for its price and its usability.
In short: Don’t use VR for your project just because it’s cool; use it because it really adds value to the user experience. Let’s put back the intelligence in the experience!
#ExperientialIntelligence
(Hint: replace VR in the sentence above with any new technology!)
Source: Metaversed - In another exponential-growth week for AI, brace yourself: GPT-4, Google Workspace, Midjourney V5, Microsoft 365 Copilot… Everyone is on it, and the advice we see the most is, «If you don’t use it, you are missing out and will be outcompeted by others.».
When you see such claims, remember: this is a multi-polar trap unfolding in real time before our eyes. This is unhealthy competition, an invisible force emerging from our drive to survival.
Unfortunately, it’s too late: Pandora’s box is open, and we see countless usages already, from building a website from a napkin drawing to someone allocating 100 USD to GPT-4 and trying to make the most money out of it.
The hopes are high: it could enable many people to build their own products, and bring their ideas to life, a super-assistant for everyone. Scientific breakthrough. Exponential technological progress.
The worries are high, too. The rapid changes in employment and needed skills leading in huge economic shifts. Fake (AI-generated) becoming impossible to distinguish from reality. Errors, hallucinations, and misalignment of AI.
What will happen? It’s difficult to say. Will this resolve similarly to how multi-polar traps usually do?
Will AI become ubiquitous and then we’re back to stage 0, waiting for the next game? Will the only losers be the ones who didn’t fall for the trap, the society, and the environment? - Related: NVIDIA GTC (GPU Technology Conference) starts today. The GPU leader has risen above all its competitors in the past years because of the gaming industry, of course, but most and foremost because its GPUs are used to… train AI.
The GPT-like AIs need a lot of processing power to train, and GPUs are perfect for that. OpenAI, Nvidia and Microsoft collaborated to build such architecture for years.
We’ll see what will come out of the CEO’s Keynote tomorrow. Topics will range from generative AI, scientific breakthrough, metaverse, and… sustainable computing.
This last topic is interesting, indeed, worries are growing about the environmental impacts of the countless data-centers needed to power the current hype on AI and Metaverse. What will Nvidia propose, and will it be (sorry for my French) bullshit? Let’s see ;-)
Today’s image, thanks to Midjourney: «A human and an AI robot in front of a data center powered by nature.»
It didn’t came out as expected - unaligned AI! - but I like the tree-robot!