Meta’s Horizon Worlds launches on mobile and web in early access

September 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Mark Zuckerberg's Horizon Worlds is extending past virtual reality in a bid to bring more users to its 3D virtual world.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally made the move to expand his metaverse Horizon Worlds from virtual reality headsets to people's smartphones and computers.

The 3D avatar-based social platform announced in a Sept. 15 blog post that it has started rolling out its first Meta Horizon world to mobile and web in an early access state.

The only experience immediately available is Super Rumble, a free-for-all shooter that launched in late July, allowing two to six players to come together in fast-paced matches lasting five minutes. Meta said that more experiences and worlds will be coming to the platform over the coming months.

*Super Rumble, a first-person shooter previously only available on VR devices. Source: Meta*

With the initial rollout, only a small number of people will be able to access it on the web or the Meta Quest app on Android, with an iOS rollout slated for the coming weeks.

“Early access will roll out to more people gradually as we gather feedback and evolve the experience,” said Meta.

“The metaverse should be available to everyone — no matter what device they’re on,” the tech giant added.

“And while Quest headsets are the most immersive way to access the metaverse, we believe there should be multiple entry points.”

Meta said bringing Worlds to more devices will open up the experience to more people. Meta hasn’t released any public statistics on its monthly active users, but a report from The Wall Street Journal in October 2022 suggested it was less than 200,000.

Meta's social platform is still currently only available in Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Interestingly, blockchain-based metaverse platforms, including Decentraland and The Sandbox, seemingly started their journey the other way around.

Both launched as PC and web-based experiences first, with Decentraland launching its browser-based 3D virtual world in February 2020 and The Sandbox launching its Alpha on PC in November 2021. Both have yet to release an official virtual reality port.

We've got legs!

Meanwhile, Meta avatars in Horizon Worlds have finally received a long-awaited update — virtual legs.

Zuckerberg initially copped criticism after the launch of his metaverse, with observers noting that the massive investment from the firm couldn’t even give its avatars virtual legs. During Connect 2022, Meta promised the legs would come in an eventual update sometime in 2023.

The legs functionality was reportedly already introduced to Quest Home space some weeks ago as a v57 test version update, but some users have reported the legs have now made their way onto the Horizon Worlds app.

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Meta to launch AI chatbots with personalities to retain users: Report

August 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

As the Big Tech giant Meta focuses on retaining its users it plans to launch a number of AI-powered chatbots with different personalities and functions.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, plans to release artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots with human-like personalities as it focuses on user retention efforts, according to a report from the Financial Times.

On Aug. 1 the FT reported that people close to the matter said prototypes of the chatbots have been underway with the final products being able to hold discussions with users at a human level.

The range of chatbots will be able to display different personalities and are expected to be released as early as next month, according to the report.

Sources close to the matter say that Meta staffers have dubbed the chatbots as “personas” and that these bots take the form of different characters. Another person with knowledge of the plans said the company has already explored one bot that speaks like the former United States president Abraham Lincoln and another for travel advice that speaks like a surfer.

According to the sources from the FT, the purpose of the chatbots will be both to offer recommendations and new search functionality, along with being a “fun product for people to play with.”

Cointelegraph has contacted Meta for further comment on the matter and has received no response at the time of writing.

The FT source said that the company may automate checks on the chatbots’ outputs to ensure accuracy and avoid rule-breaking speech.

This development comes as Meta has allocated major efforts toward user retention. During its 2023 second-quarter earnings call on July 26, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the company’s latest product and Twitter rival, Threads.

He said that he is “seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected.” It was in this call Zuckerberg said Meta was primarily focused on Threads user retention. The earnings call also revealed another $3.7 billion invested into metaverse development.

The introduction of accessible chatbots also means an opportunity to collect large amounts of user data. OpenAI, the maker of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit over alleged data theft via its own bots.

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Elon Musk imposes ‘rate limit’ on Twitter citing extreme ‘system manipulation’

July 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Censorship Resistance

Verified Twitter users will be allowed to view 10,000 posts per day, while new, unverified accounts will get 500 under the new limits.

Social media platform Twitter is temporarily limiting the number of posts that users will be allowed to read per day, after seeing “extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation,” according to executive chairman Elon Musk.

In a July 1 post, Musk said the temporary limits will see verified accounts capped at 10,000 posts per day, while unverified and new, unverified accounts are capped at 1,000 and 500 posts per day respectively:

Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023

Twitter users had been reporting issues on the platform over the last few days including the inability to retrieve tweets, missing timelines, and being met with a "rate limited exceeded" message, leading to the hashtag #TwitterDown #TwitterFail to trend in certain jurisdictions.

*A screenshot of a Twitter user’s account — having reached their rate limit. Source: Twitter*

Real-time outage monitor website Downdetector has seen thousands of user-submitted reports claiming Twitter outages over the last 24 hours.

France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the East and West Coasts of the United States appear to be the most affected regions, according to Is The Service Down.

*Number of outage reports on Twitter in 15-minute intervals over the last 24 hours. Source: Downdetector*

Musk didn’t clarify what may be responsible for scraping Twitter’s data and didn’t elaborate on the root cause behind the “system manipulation” claim, but said that their data was being "pillaged" so much it was degrading service for users.

Some suggest that the extreme "data scraping" has been caused by web-browsing-enabled artificial intelligence chatbots, such as OpenAI's GPT-4.

According to Twitter’s developer documents, rate limits are imposed to manage the volume of requests made to Twitter’s Application Program Interface (API).

“These limits help us provide the reliable and scalable API that our developer community relies on,” the document states.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter was among the few that defended the recent moves in a July 2 post, noting that “Running Twitter is hard” and that the decision was likely made for the greater good of the platform.

He added that he’d like to see Twitter move to a “truly censorship-resistant open protocol” like Bitcoin and Nostr:

And I do hope they consider building on truly censorship-resistant open protocols like bitcoin and nostr to help ease that burden. Good for all, and critical to preserve the open internet.
— jack (@jack) July 1, 2023

Outside of the office, Musk appears to be training for a potential mixed martial arts cage fight with fellow billionaire and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

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AI automation could take over 50% of today’s work activity by 2045: McKinsey

June 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Management consulting firm McKinsey & Co believes AI will have the “biggest impact” on high-wage workers.

In just 22 years, generative AI may be able to fully automate half of all work activity conducted today, including tasks related to decision-making, management, and interfacing with stakeholders, according to a new report from McKinsey & Co.

The prediction came from the management consulting firm report on June 14, forecasting 75% of generative AI value creation will come from customer service operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, as well as research and development positions.

What’s the value and impact of #generativeAI? Companies across countless industries are already experimenting with its applications. Our new research has found that the value at stake is huge–potentially $2.6 to $4.4 trillion in #productivity annually➡ https://t.co/pY5ACuvoL1 pic.twitter.com/ecZ0RvtzHl
— McKinsey & Company (@McKinsey) June 14, 2023

The firm explained that recent developments in generative AI has “accelerated” its “midpoint” prediction by nearly a decade from 2053 — its 2016 estimate — to 2045.

McKinsey explained that its broad range of 2030-2060 was made to encompass a range of outcomes — such as the rate at which generative AI is adopted, investment decisions and regulation, among other factors.

Its previous range for 50% of work being automated was 2035-2070.

*McKinsey’s new predicted “midpoint” time at which automation reaches 50% of time on work-related activities has accelerated by eight years to 2045. Source: McKinsey*

The consulting firm said, however, the pace of adoption across the globe will vary considerably from country to country:

“Automation adoption is likely to be faster in developed economies, where higher wages will make it economically feasible sooner.”

*Early and late scenario midpoint times for the United States, Germany, Japan, France, China, Mexico and India. Source: McKinsey.*

Generative AI systems now have the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60-70% of employees’ time today, McKinsey estimated.

Interestingly, the report estimates generative AI will likely have the “biggest impact” on high-wage workers applying a high degree of “expertise” in the form of decision making, management and interfacing with stakeholders.

What will be the impact of generative AI on work, and how much value could it generate?

Explore the full research: https://t.co/A3GOfAGrHC pic.twitter.com/Qed0DhZsyE
— McKinsey Global Institute (@McKinsey_MGI) June 14, 2023

The report also predicts that the generative AI market will add between $2.6 to $4.4 trillion to the world economy annually and be worth a whopping $15.7 trillion by 2030.

This would provide enormous economic value on top of non-generative AI tools in mainstream use today, the firm said:

“That would add 15 to 40 percent to the $11.0 trillion to $17.7 trillion of economic value that we now estimate nongenerative artificial intelligence and analytics could unlock.”

Generative AI systems are capable of producing text, images, audio and videos in response to prompts by receiving input data and learning its patterns. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the most commonly used generative AI tool today.

McKinsey’s $15.7 trillion prediction by 2030 is more than a three-fold increase in comparison to its $5 trillion prediction for the Metaverse over the same timeframe.

However, the recent growth of generative AI platforms hasn’t come without concerns.

The United Nations recently highlighted “serious and urgent” concerns about generative AI tools producing fake news and information on June 12.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a grilling by United States Senators of a “leaked” release of the firm’s AI tool “LLaMA” which the senators claim to be potentially “dangerous” and be possibly used for “criminal tasks.”

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Metaverse for youth: Meta urged to ban minors from virtual world

April 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Currently allowing users from 18, Meta also wants to open up its metaverse app Horizon Worlds to users aged 13 to 17.

Advocacy organizations and safety groups have urged Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant Meta to halt plans to allow minors into the metaverse.

Online safety groups and experts sent a letter to the Meta CEO on April 14, calling out the firm to scrap its plans to invite teenagers and young adults to join its metaverse app, Horizon Worlds. The letter was signed by major safety groups, including Airplay, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Common Sense Media and others, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The activists argued that Meta must first assess potential risks of allowing youth in the metaverse as minors are likely to face harassment and privacy violations on its virtual reality app.

“Meta must wait for more peer-reviewed research on the potential risks of the metaverse to be certain that children and teens would be safe,” the advocates wrote in the letter.

The statement referred to a March report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate that found that users under 18 have already been facing harassment from adults on the app. The study specifically witnessed 19 episodes of of abuse directed at minors by adults, including sexual harassment, during 100 visits to the most popular worlds within Horizon Universe.

The safety experts argued that Meta should create a new path with its metaverse project to protect the youth, stating:

“Should Meta throw open the doors of these worlds to minors rather than pause to protect them, you would, yet again, demonstrate your company to be untrustworthy when it comes to safeguarding young people’s best interests.”

As previously reported, Meta started planning to open up Horizon Worlds to users aged 13 and 17 in February. The company first opened Horizon Worlds to users from 18 years old in 2021 but has since been struggling to keep users coming back to the platform.

According to Bloomberg, Meta currently doesn’t plan to abandon its plans for miners in the metaverse but prepares to adopt some extra measures to protect such users from any metaverse-related violations, Meta’s Joe Osborne said.

“Before we make Horizon Worlds available to teens, we will have additional protections and tools in place to help provide age-appropriate experiences for them,” Osborne noted, adding:

“Quest headsets are for people 13+ and we encourage parents and caretakers to use our parental supervision tools, including managing access to apps, to help ensure safe experiences.”

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Disney Reportedly Axing Metaverse Division Amidst Company Restructuring

April 1, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Meta Announces 10,000 Layoffs in ‘Year of Efficiency’ Move; Singles Out AI Over Metaverse as ‘Largest Investment’

March 16, 2023 Bitcoin.com

US lawmaker behind crypto mining legislation urges Zuck not to offer metaverse to teenagers

March 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A letter from two U.S. senators cited reports of Instagram being behind many teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts, and Meta's failure to stop harmful ads aimed at young adults.

Two United States senators have penned a letter asking Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt a plan to allow young adults to access the firm’s metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds.

In a March 1 letter, Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal said that Meta’s reported plan to “invite young users into a digital space rife with potential harms” should not be implemented if the strategy was driven by profit. According to the two lawmakers, allowing teenagers between 13 and 17 years old access to the virtual environment posed “serious risks”, citing privacy concerns, eye strain, and online bullying.

“Meta’s plan to target young people with offerings in the metaverse is particularly concerning in light of your consistent failures to protect young users,” said Markey and Blumenthal to Zuckerberg. “With a documented track record of failure to protect children and teens, Meta has lost parents’, pediatricians’, policymakers’, and the public’s trust.”

Just like the internet today, the metaverse will have both public venues as well as spaces for more private conversations. And you’ll be able to choose how you want to participate. pic.twitter.com/JoGjrHmnlc
— Meta (@Meta) January 25, 2022

The two senators cited reports of Instagram being behind many teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts, as well as the firm’s failure to stop ads for “tobacco, alcohol, and eating disorder content” targeted at young adults:

“As our constituents grow increasingly concerned about the effects of online platforms and social media apps on teens’ well-being, your plans to imminently pull these young people into an under-researched, potentially dangerous virtual realm with consequences for their physical and mental health is unacceptable.”

Markey, a junior senator representing Massachusetts, has previously signed on to legislation targeting the environmental impact of crypto mining and called on mining firms to answer questions regarding data collection. Blumenthal was behind a bill in the last session of the U.S. Congress aimed at allowing third-party applications and app stores on devices released from major tech firms.