This newsletter edition has been elaborated by Ana Castejón and Javier López-Guzmán
The MetaverseUA Chair Newsletter #15 - January 2025
Hey there, Metaversian friends!
Welcome to a new issue of the MetaverseUA Chair newsletter. The end of 2024 was busy for the Chair: we continued the publication of our series of research papers with exceptional authors: Steffen Schwalm and Andre Kudra coauthoring about Decentralised digital identity in the Metaverse, Pablo Trigo and Vagelis Papakonstantinou with a work on personal data processing in immersive virtual worlds and Martin Ebers with an analysis on the protection of digital identities. We also developed our Thursdays in the Metaverse webinars series with fantastic speakers: Larry A. DiMatteo on the regulation of NFTs, Brittan Heller, who talked about the embodied web, and Anselm Küsters on standards and competition in the Virtual Worlds. We are also getting ready for some very interesting activities in the coming months. Stay tuned! But enough talking about the past. We have a lot going on in the Virtual Worlds domain. Buckle up! Let’s go to it.
Goodbye automatic dialogue, hello adaptive AI
The future of the Metaverse might jump ahead thanks to generative AI! OpenAI has unveiled its o3 and o3-mini models, two AI brainiacs designed to reason before responding, thanks to their «private chain of thought«—a process that allows them to plan and analyse before providing an answer. These models don’t just excel in math and science (o3 scored a jaw-dropping 96.7% on the American Invitational exam in 2024), but also allow users to choose processing speeds, with better outcomes in the most reflective modes.
And, what’s their potential role in the Metaverse? Here’s where the magic could happen: avatars powered by AI could become truly smart and adaptive, capable of interpreting your emotions, anticipating your questions, and even negotiating with you in more realistic ways. In comparison with the videogames industry, based on NPCs (non-playable characters), we could say goodbye to repetitive dialogue loops. Imagine a virtual world full of guides, villains, and allies that actually think and interact with you through AI powered avatars. The o3-mini is set to launch by the end of January 2025, with the full o3 model following later. Looks like the metaverse might soon outsmart some of its users. 😉
The Metaverse as a catalyst for future culture and education
The new report “Making Sense of the Metaverse: A Cultural and Educational Perspective” highlights the Metaverse’s impact on culture and education. This study directed by Ágnes Karolina Bakk and Sebastian Gschanes, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, presents a promising, yet challenging, outlook on how these sectors could be transformed. Cultural institutions have a unique opportunity to build inclusive and sustainable virtual worlds that challenge the conventions of the physical world. These platforms can become spaces for critical education, cultural preservation, and artistic exploration, fostering hands-on, immersive pedagogical experiences that redefine the way we learn and create.
Moreover, the Metaverse is emerging as an ideal setting for historical education, cultural preservation, and creative reinterpretation. According to the authors of the report, it may allow users to explore, “deconstruct and reconstruct their digital environments with boundless creativity”. However, to achieve these goals, it is crucial for institutions to prioritize inclusive design, technological accessibility, and social and environmental sustainability. The key will be ensuring that these experiences are not only innovative but also ethical and equitable, fostering collaboration and interconnectivity between institutions, creative communities, and technology sectors. The challenge is not merely technical, but human: building the Metaverse for the goal of enriching the connection between people and knowledge.
Tax authorities stretch their way to the Virtual Worlds
Italian prosecutors in Milan have concluded a preliminary investigation into Meta Platforms Ireland Limited regarding VAT taxes evasion. Allegedly, the company failed to declare taxable income of approximately €3.9 billion between 2015 and 2021, resulting in a VAT evasion of over €887 million. This investigation is of high relevance for the Virtual Worlds because of the type of taxable income emerged: data revenues. The prosecutors argue that the mere collection of personal data, in exchange for a costless access to Meta´s services and platforms, constitutes a mercantile exchange subject to VAT taxes. The mere exchange, and not the posterior monetisation of the data. So far, the Metaverse has been under sight of the regulators in Europe because of IP management, content moderation and personal data processing. This case considers the financial and fiscal value of user data exchanged for free access to platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Since the inception of the “Pay or OK” model, consequences have been accumulating for the digital market. This “Pay or OK” model is very likely to be implemented also in the Virtual Worlds, and not only by Meta, but also by other key players. If this fiscal approach is validated by the courts of justice, the access to Virtual Worlds will also change, moving from a chargeless software-access model closer to a subscription system. The investigation was initiated on a mandate from the European public prosecutor’s office, and it is likely to find its way to the highest European judiciary instances.
AI predictive analytics improve more and more
Stanford University researchers recently made available to the public a very interesting exercise about AI agents simulations. They used AI agents to simulate the attitudes and behaviors of 1,052 real individuals, who volunteered for testing. They applied Large Language Models to perform interviews with qualitative questions about their lives. Then, the models replicated these attitudes and behaviors of the individuals that they represented, in unchecked actions with the individuals. The generative agents obtained an 85% level of accuracy as participants replicated their own answers two weeks later. The experiment through these AI agents reduced accuracy biases across racial and ideological groups, compared to agents given demographic descriptions. This work will prove very useful to develop new tools that can help investigate individual and collective behavior in the offline world, and in the Metaverse. Avatars powered by AI would improve exponentially if this research can be replicated in the Virtual Worlds. This study builds on previous developments by researchers in the field who pointed at the possibilities of these constructions years ago following the inception of Big data, and their potential ethical impact.
AI and the Metaverse: hunger for energy and thirst for water
Artificial Intelligence is here to revolutionize our lives, but it’s also giving the environment a bit of a boo. Data centers, essential for AI and the Metaverse, are total energy vampires! They consume huge amounts of electricity, minerals, and water (700,000 liters just to train GPT-3!), both for the production of their equipment and for their operation. On top of that, they contribute to the growing problem of electronic waste. But don’t panic just yet: the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has some solutions up its sleeve, like optimising algorithms to reduce energy consumption, using more sustainable hardware, recycling water and reusing components, promoting data centers powered by renewable energy, and adapting environmental regulations to responsibly integrate AI. The UNEP also points out the need to make the most of the sustainable alternatives and benefits that AI offer to counteract traditionally polluting activities and practices. AI is still in its infancy, and we still have time to teach it some good manners.
And that is all for this newsletter edition! We will come back soon to your inboxes with more Metaversian news. Stay tuned. Enjoy the ride!
