Mark Zuckerberg has abandoned his grand plan for the metaverse and shifted Meta Platforms' focus to artificial intelligence, creating a new top-level product group focused on generative AI. Zuckerberg believes that AI has the potential to transform not just the tech industry, but society as a whole, and Meta's pivot to AI has
far-reaching implications for the tech industry and beyond.
Why Mark Zuckerberg Abandoned the Metaverse for AI, and Why You Should Care The
news spread quickly through the tech industry and beyond. Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire tech tycoon and CEO of Meta Platforms, had quietly abandoned his grand plan for the metaverse, the immersive virtual world that was supposed to be the Next Big Thing. There was no press release, no big announcement. Just a few hints here and there, buried in blog posts and earnings calls, that the
metaverse was no longer the top priority for Meta. Instead, the company was shifting its focus to artificial intelligence, or AI, a field that many experts consider to be a true technological revolution. For those who had followed Zuckerberg's ambitious plans for the metaverse, the news was a shock. The CEO had invested billions of dollars into the project, creating a dedicated division
called Reality Labs that was supposed to be the driving force behind the new virtual world. But despite all the hype and buzz, the metaverse had failed to take off, and now it seemed that Zuckerberg was quietly burying the project and moving on to something else. Some critics saw this as a sign of Zuckerberg's hubris and excess, comparing him to the French king Louis XIV, who famously
declared, "I am the state." Others saw it as a savvy move by a shrewd businessman who knew when to cut his losses and move on to the next big thing. Either way, the news had far-reaching implications for the tech industry and beyond. The metaverse had been hailed as a new frontier for social media, a place where people could interact with each other in immersive, lifelike environments. It
had been touted as a potential solution to many of the problems facing modern society, from loneliness and isolation to climate change and inequality. But now, it seemed that the metaverse was dead. The dream of a new virtual world had been shattered, and those who had invested time, money, and energy into the project were left to wonder what had gone wrong. For Zuckerberg, the decision to abandon the metaverse was a difficult one. He had been one of its biggest advocates, predicting that it would be the next big thing after the internet and mobile phones. He had even renamed his company Meta Platforms in a nod to the new virtual world he was trying to create. But as time
went on, it became clear that the metaverse was not living up to its hype. The technology was still clunky and expensive, and there were few compelling use cases beyond gaming and entertainment. Meanwhile, the costs of developing the technology were spiraling out of control, with Meta's Reality Labs division recording losses of nearly $24 billion over two years. Zuckerberg knew that he had
to make a change. He had always been quick to adapt to new ideas and trends, and he knew that the tech industry was moving in a new direction. Artificial intelligence was the new buzzword, and Zuckerberg saw an opportunity to pivot his company towards this new field. In a blog post in February 2023, Zuckerberg announced that Meta was creating a new top-level product group focused on
generative AI. The company would be pulling together its various AI teams to build new, creative tools that could help people in a variety of ways. It was a bold move, but one that Zuckerberg believed was necessary. AI was already transforming the way we interact with technology, from chatbots that could answer our questions to virtual assistants that could carry out tasks for us. With the
rise of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, machines would soon be able to outperform humans at most economically valuable work. Zuckerberg saw the potential for AI to transform not just the tech industry, but society as a whole. He believed that AI could help solve many of the problems that the metaverse had promised to solve, from loneliness and isolation to climate change and
inequality. With generative AI, Zuckerberg envisioned a future where machines could create art, music, and literature that rivaled that of human creators. He saw a future where AI could help scientists discover new drugs and treatments for diseases, and where it could help farmers optimize their crops and reduce waste. Of course, there were also concerns about the potential dangers of AI, from job displacement to the risk of creating powerful machines that could harm humans. But Zuckerberg believed that these risks could be managed, and that the benefits of AI far outweighed the risks. As Meta shifted its focus to AI, other tech companies were also taking notice. Google,
Microsoft, and Amazon were all investing heavily in AI research and development, and startups were popping up left and right, each claiming to have the next big breakthrough in AI. It was clear that AI was the new frontier for the tech industry, and that the race was on to create the most powerful and transformative AI systems. As for the metaverse, it was not completely dead. Some companies were still working on developing virtual worlds and immersive environments, and there were still enthusiasts who believed that the metaverse could one day become a reality. But for now, the focus had shifted to AI, and the world was waiting to see what new innovations and
breakthroughs would emerge from this exciting and rapidly-evolving field. |
All the news you need today, in a format that isn't TL:DR, summarized for the busy executive.
Google is introducing travel goals to Performance Max to enable users to drive more direct hotel bookings through various formats and channels such as Maps, Search, and YouTube. The feature allows users to create ads and edit or add more assets later. Google is expanding service-specific ads to over 70
businesses, enabling local services to promote themselves at the top of search results in the areas of their choice. Additionally, Google has updated its Healthcare and Medical policy and Reviews guidelines, allowing certified telemedicine providers to promote online pharmacies in Sweden and providing more context regarding personal information and fake engagement. The updates benefit local service providers and hotel businesses, and it will be interesting to see if Performance Max capabilities
translate well to niche ads such as hotels. Lumen Research, a global attention technology company, is expanding its US operations to meet increased demand for attention measurement and optimization solutions. Bill Forelli has been hired as the VP of Sales, North America, while Barbara Butts will head up US customer success. Forelli and
Butts will join Scott Linzer, General Manager, North Americas, and Blaise Lucey, Marketing Director, in the rapidly growing US-based Lumen team. Lumen is the only end-to-end attention technology company that combines eye-tracking and machine learning to plan, activate, measure, and optimize advertising campaigns. These appointments come as Lumen helps a growing roster of clients to measure attention and link it to outcomes such as engagement, brand lift, sales, and creative performance. Ad tech company Adnami has announced the appointment of Sophie Spencer as UK Agency Sales Director, as it continues to expand across Europe. Spencer, formerly Head of Agency Sales at News UK, will lead Adnami's agency sales team as advertisers increasingly turn to programmatic high-impact advertising. Adnami's platform-agnostic approach to
high-impact advertising allows for scalable and automated advertising campaigns, serving a diverse range of clients including Amazon, Disney, and Samsung. Brand Metrics, the global technology company that helps publishers measure the effectiveness of digital advertising, has appointed Kristen Friesen as VP Business Development in the
US. Friesen will be responsible for scaling the company's groundbreaking products in the US market and developing and leading the US-based sales structure. She was most recently Head of Growth for Zeus Prime at Zeus Technology, an ad tech start-up within The Washington Post. Brand Metrics provides a survey-based SaaS technology that calculates brand lift across four key metrics: awareness, consideration, brand preference and action intent, and compares these scores against global
benchmarks. The company's SaaS technology is used by over 50 global publishers. Alameda Research, the now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund that was tied to FTX, is suing Grayscale Investments, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. Alameda and the FTX management team allege in their complaint that Grayscale charged “exorbitant” asset
management fees—allegedly violating trust agreements—and also that Grayscale did not let investors redeem shares of its cryptocurrency trusts. Twitter has been late in paying Amazon Web Services for cloud services, prompting Amazon to threaten to withhold payments for advertising on the social media app. Peter Thiel’s Founders
Fund cut the size of its $1.9 billion venture fund raised a year ago by roughly half and plans to roll over the remaining $1 billion pledged by its backers to a future fund. A National Labor Relations Board official in Texas ruled that Google was a "joint employer" of YouTube's contract workers who label videos. A recent article in Quartz
highlights the complexity of modern smartphones and the teamwork required to produce them. While companies like Apple have tried to reduce their reliance on outside component suppliers, many of the most important components in iPhones are still made by other companies. For example, Samsung likely produces the displays on iPhones, while Sony makes the camera sensors. Similarly, many other industries rely on core components from a few major suppliers. However, this arrangement can make it
harder for devices to stand out in crowded consumer markets. Apple has developed its own chips to give its laptops better performance and longer battery life, and is currently working on making its own modems and displays. The article serves as a reminder that making smartphones is a complex and challenging process. LinkedIn's recruitment
services business, a key source of its revenue growth, is facing challenges as customers push back against the company's pricing. LinkedIn has increased its fees for recruiter subscriptions to such an extent that some tech firms and specialist recruiting agencies are reducing their spending on the platform as they slow their hiring. Some are switching to cheaper alternatives like Indeed and SeekOut, citing LinkedIn's price increases as unjustified given the quality of its product. A new report from Smartly.io's annual digital advertising trends survey shows that 38% of marketers find it difficult to personalize ad creative that is native to a specific platform. To overcome this, HelloFresh's Dovas Zakas suggests that advertisers should create ads with social media platforms in mind. Zakas and his team have set up
internal group chats on each social media platform to share content and ads that they like and want to reproduce. They also create trendy, user-generated campaigns in-house. Zakas advises advertisers to get creative with their content and produce three to five iterations with different hooks, music, text overlays, and other elements. Automation can also give teams their time back for creativity, replacing tasks that were previously done manually. Alo Yoga has teamed up with The Sandbox, a decentralized virtual world, to launch a collection of digital wearables including a bucket hat, sweatpants and hoodie from Alo Yoga’s collection. The move is Alo’s latest experimentation with the metaverse concept, as the company continues to engage with its community through decentralized platforms and exclusive member rewards. The brand
has previously released Aspen Collection NFTs and has also had a hand in the crypto industry, introducing its own digital environment, opening a virtual store, and accepting cryptocurrency for e-commerce purchases. The collection launched on March 1 during Paris Fashion Week. |
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