Generative AI Needs a Use Case and Metaverse Might Be the One

Somewhere amid the growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual worlds have lost some steam. However, one cannot say that it has been lost altogether, there’s still scope for it to become an important technology across the globe. Metaverse expert and author Wager James Au discussed the potential of this immersive reality in an interview with the news website Yahoo! Finance.

Epic’s Win is a Big Win for the Metaverse

AI is great, but Wagner believes it needs a use case in a social context. “The metaverse is all about community and user engagement. So the thing people miss with generative AI is you need a use case, you need people actually using it in a social context,” he says. “And so the Metaverse– despite what Meta has been trying has actually been growing in terms of monthly active users.”

Generative AI has made art as simple as ABC for almost everyone on the internet. The ones who wouldn’t even have imagined becoming artists are creating compelling art using tools like Midjourney and DALL E. A recent update of the latter now has a ChatGPT plugin that provides them with prompts for creating art.

He called Roblox a leading metaverse platform globally. The metaverse does not have a perfect definition yet. However, it is usually perceived as a space of interconnected virtual worlds. The game at least meets this definition. Users can create their own digital realms connected to other virtual worlds, creating Roblox altogether.

Roblox is using generative AI to enable content creation on the platform. Wagner said, “And they’re experimenting with generative AI, for example, if you want to create a virtual world or space and you can use generative AI to create 3D graphics quickly in the background, so kind of average users can create really spectacular scenes, generative AI is very powerful.”

When asked about his other top picks, Wagner said that “other big thing to look at was the lawsuit Epic Games versus Google.” Recently, Fortnite creator Epic Games won the case where it claimed that the defendants are trying to shed monopoly in the market. The win will “empower any metaverse platform which depends on smartphones.”

As metaverse is usually deemed an immersive technology, head-mounted displays (HMDs) play a vital role in accessing it. However, many believe it is already here if we take HMDs out of the equation. Devices including smartphones, PCs, consoles, and more allow users access to gaming, which is at the very core of the metaverse.

Technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and more are likely to take some time before making it to the general public’s homes. However, smartphones are already mainstream, and rigorous developments in software are making them more feasible for gaming.

Au concludes “So obviously, Roblox, there’s some other players like Rec Room, VRChat, and they are moving into mobile as kind of the main access point.” Data shows that mobile gaming users are expected to rise to around 2 Billion by 2028. Meanwhile, experts believe nearly 73 Million users would access the VR market.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.