A Metaverse for the Good: Exploring the Intersection of AI and the Metaverse, 2nd International Congress

The idea of the metaverse is a vast extended reality set of worlds where physical and virtual reality intersect. It might be inhabited at any one time by millions of people, and as in the real world groups of people can interact with one another in real-time. The virtual metaverse will overlap with the physical world in various ways – for example, walking into a particular place in the physical world may transport you to a virtual place, where you are interacting with life-sized virtual humans who may be anywhere in the real world. Some of those ‘people’ you interact with might not be human but representations of AI agents. This can have far reaching beneficial consequences. For example, an AI agent might be an expert in psychological counselling who can treat millions of clients simultaneously. Another might be explaining to you how you can use some complex machine in the physical world. Another may be teaching mathematics. However, as with any technology there are multiple possibilities for malfeasance. As you walk through a physical street wearing augmented reality spectacles you may be bombarded by virtual humans trying to sell you something (a ‘feature’ you can only switch off by paying a global company). There are boundless possibilities for impersonation and political manipulation, as well as countless positive aspects that we can hardly see today – because as with any new technology, our predictions are likely to be incorrect. Mobile phones and social media have connected people in ways almost unimaginable a few years ago, but they also seem to be threatening democracy – with the loss of a common shared reality to which everyone relates. In this respect the Metaverse, with its immersion and sense of presence, may be orders of magnitude more powerful – positively and negatively. 

This is not a Frontiers publication, but it is in conjunction with Frontiers in Virtual Reality, who have offered a prize for the best paper, and there will be a Research Topic associated with this conference.