Forecast: Convergence of Meta’s GenAI and metaverse
January 25, 2024
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, recently disclosed plans regarding the development of generative AI, with a specific emphasis on creating AI assistants tailored for businesses and content creators. With Meta’s main focus on the metaverse and a consistent track record of innovation in AI, the company is strategically positioned to deliver generative AI products that intersect these two technological realms, as highlighted by Technology Foresights, a proprietary platform developed by GlobalData, the data and analytics company.
Meta underwent a substantial transformation in 2021, shifting its focus towards augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and the metaverse. Despite this shift, it has remained a continuous innovator in the field of AI, introducing notable advancements such as the widely used machine learning framework PyTorch and the expansive language model Llama. These innovations, comparable to GPT-4 and BERT, are part of Meta’s ongoing efforts. Additionally, the company recently announced the consolidation of its AI research teams, underscoring its commitment to developing fully general AI, particularly for content creators.
The innovation leadership module within the Technology Foresights framework highlights Meta’s active involvement in over 200 innovations, with more than 40 specifically in the realm of AI. Meta stands out in these AI innovations, possessing strong leadership characterised by high innovation focus and innovation impact scores—two pivotal metrics within Technology Foresights for assessing the strength of an innovation portfolio.
Sourabh Nyalkalkar, Practice Head of Innovation Products at GlobalData, commented: “With Meta solidifying its presence in metaverse technology and crafting products designed for a user-friendly spatial computing interface, innovations in areas such as brain-machine interface, gesture-controlled wearables, and natural language understanding (NLU) are poised to significantly influence upcoming product lines. Furthermore, Meta’s advancements in text-to-content generation, gesture recognition, and synthetic data processing contribute notably to the landscape of content creation.”
While Meta’s prowess in AI is evident, Technology Foresights sheds light on areas where the company can fortify its position to align more closely with its overarching vision. The platform also offers valuable guidance for potential contributors, including vendors, providers, or start-ups, on how they can address these strategic gaps.
Sourabh concluded: “The AI innovation landscape for Meta reflects a well-aligned strategic focus on key aspects of the AI value chain, complementing its broader metaverse vision. As the race for Gen AI unfolds and shapes the technology landscape for the next decade, Meta stands out with its unique position to develop solutions converging at the intersection of the metaverse and AI.”