Meta Platforms (FB) has unveiled several new artificial intelligence (AI) projects that the company says are key to “unlocking the Metaverse.”
In a livestreamed demonstration, Meta Platforms chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg showed off a basic virtual world that included a virtual reality (VR) island, trees and a beach using an AI feature called “Builder Bot.” Zuckerberg also announced a plan to build a universal speech translator that will allow people to communicate with each other in any language.
Builder Bot is part of Meta Platform’s “CAIRaoke” project that aims to improve AI assistants and allow “AI to see the world from our experience” as people enter virtual reality realms using headsets or glasses, Zuckerberg said.
Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, has been investing in AI for the past 10 years and employs one of the world’s leading experts, Yann LeCun, as its global head of AI development.
In January, Meta Platforms announced that it is building a new AI supercomputer that, it says, will be the fastest in the world when completed later this year. Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms last October.
Zuckerberg has gone all in on the “Metaverse,” a virtual reality universe that people will eventually be able to access via VR headsets such as the Meta Quest, and where they can work, play and socialize in a virtual space.
Meta Platforms has said that it plans to hire 10,000 people to help build the Metaverse.
