Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, is facing criticism regarding the status of the Metaverse, which he had announced as the next big thing for his social media empire in October 2021. Although the Metaverse has suffered a cumulative loss of almost $24 billion, Zuckerberg remains unapologetic and committed to the project, which he now describes as a “long-term project.” He deflects any suggestions that the Metaverse is no longer a priority and insists that the company has been focusing on both AI and the Metaverse for years.
Zuckerberg is using dialectics to present a sophistry argument that the Metaverse is a small subset of AI. He has integrated the concept of the Metaverse into an overall vision of AI, which is the real focus of the company. During his three-page remarks to investors and analysts on April 26, which were mainly devoted to AI, Zuckerberg claimed that the two areas are related, and breakthroughs in computer vision enabled them to ship the first standalone virtual reality device.
Although Zuckerberg made no commitments regarding investments, he admitted that building the Metaverse is a long-term project. This phrase seems to be a strategy to save face and avoid admitting that he was wrong about the Metaverse. Zuckerberg’s recent remarks have caused confusion about Meta’s ambitions regarding the Metaverse, and he now has an excuse to delay any announcements.
Despite the Metaverse’s poor performance, Zuckerberg is enthusiastic about AI, which has taken the Metaverse’s place as the real priority for Meta Platforms. Zuckerberg believes that AI has the potential to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful, and the company is exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual creation tools for posts in Facebook and Instagram, and ads.
