This newsletter edition has been elaborated by INES TREMIÑO GUILLEN and Giovanni Sorrentino
The MetaverseUA Chair Newsletter #16 - February 2025
Hey there, Metaversian friends!
Welcome to the new issue of the MetaverseUA Chair newsletter!
The world of emerging tech is moving fast, and 2025 is already shaping up to be a game-changer.
Buckle up! 🚀
AI Safety: A Global Challenge or a Geopolitical Fantasy?📰
We all know AI is revolutionising everything—from business to warfare—but what happens when nations can’t agree on how to regulate it? That’s exactly what’s playing out on the world stage, as highlighted in the latest South China Morning Post piece.
The author of the article is Fu Ying, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chinese ambassador, also in light of what happened during the recent Paris AI Action Summit. Let’s be clear—we don’t want to sound alarmist, but the outlook is not promising.
A little flashback. It was 2019, OpenAI had not yet released ChatGPT, and many of us were unaware of the existence of AI. Henry Kissinger (former US secretary of state) and Eric Schmidt (former Google’s CEO), attended the China Development Forum, joined an AI safety discussion in Beijing. Kissinger expressed his concern on AI safety and he said Beijing and Washington should work together to regulate AI, without ‘an attempt for one side to achieve domination”. Fu Ying (at the time Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s) responded that “as long as the US and China can work together with the rest of humanity, we should be able to find a way to keep AI power under control. But if the countries remain at odds and even use advanced AI systems against each other, the machines are more likely to gain the upper hand.”
Let’s come to it nowadays. Some weeks ago, JD Vance made his first official trip as US Vice President, taking action in the Paris AI Action Summit and what he said is going exactly in the opposite direction. He pointed the finger at over-regulation, which, in his view, could slow down technological development.
On the other hand, the EU is already ahead with the AI Act, but it’s struggling to make it global. China is pushing for international AI safety regulations, arguing that the risks—bias, surveillance, autonomous weapons—are too big to ignore. But here’s the catch: global AI governance requires trust, and right now, trust is in short supply.
💡 Prediction: Expect more diplomatic talks, but don’t hold your breath for a universal AI treaty anytime soon.
EU Lawmakers Challenge Commission's Move to Scrap AI Liability Rules
In a surprising turn of events, the European Commission recently decided to withdraw its proposed AI Liability Directive, citing a lack of foreseeable agreement among EU lawmakers.
This directive aimed to establish a unified framework for compensating individuals harmed by AI-driven products and services, ensuring that victims could seek redress across all member states.
However, this decision has not gone unchallenged. Key figures within the European Parliament have voiced strong objections. Axel Voss, a prominent Member of the European Parliament (MEP), warned that abandoning the directive could lead to a fragmented legal landscape, with each member state developing its own AI liability laws. Such fragmentation, he argues, could stifle innovation and create legal uncertainties for businesses operating across borders.
Possible consequences:
- Consumer Protection: Without a standardized EU-wide framework, individuals may face difficulties seeking compensation for damages caused by AI systems.
- Business Uncertainty: Companies could encounter a patchwork of regulations, complicating compliance and potentially deterring investment in AI technologies within Europe.
- Innovation Impediments: A lack of clear and consistent liability rules might discourage startups and SMEs from developing and deploying AI solutions, fearing legal repercussions.
Looking Ahead
The debate is far from over. The European Parliament’s pushback indicates a strong desire to revisit and possibly reinstate the AI Liability Directive. It appears that the EU is currently experiencing a tumultuous and potentially turbulent period. And we will be ready to analyse what happens!
AI, Copyright, and the Courts: A Game-Changing Ruling🤖
Artificial intelligence is pushing boundaries in every field, from creative arts to legal research. But what happens when AI companies use copyrighted content to train their models? That question is at the center of a major legal battle between ROSS Intelligence and Thomson Reuters over the use of Westlaw’s proprietary headnotes.
This ruling is shaking things up. Judge Stephanos Bibas determined that ROSS’s use of Westlaw’s headnotes was not only copyright infringement but also failed the fair use test. Could this be a defining moment for AI copyright law?
Rewind a bit. AI developers have long claimed that scraping publicly available data for training purposes is fair game. Judge Bibas made it clear: even concise legal summaries, when structured and selected with editorial judgment, deserve copyright protection.
Fast forward to the present. The court found that ROSS had copied thousands of Westlaw’s headnotes almost verbatim to train its AI, solidifying the infringement claim. The key takeaway? Even arranging and selecting information from the public domain can be sufficiently creative to warrant protection.
And fair use? That defense didn’t hold. The court ruled that ROSS’s use was commercial, non-transformative, and directly competed with Westlaw. The judge also dismissed comparisons to software cases where intermediate copying was deemed fair use, stating that ROSS had no need to copy the headnotes to access legal concepts—only to develop a rival product.
What does this mean going forward? This ruling could shape the future of AI and copyright law. If curating and structuring publicly available information is enough for copyright protection, AI developers may need to rethink their training data strategies. Will this decision hold up on appeal? That remains to be seen.
For now, one thing is clear: the legal landscape for AI is evolving, and this is just the beginning.
VR in 2025: A Quiet Revolution or Just a Holding Pattern?👓
We all know that virtual reality (VR) is evolving rapidly—from gaming to productivity, from entertainment to industrial applications—but what happens when a year passes without a major breakthrough? That’s exactly what 2025 is shaping up to be: a year of refinement rather than revolution in the VR industry.
Let’s take a step back. In previous years, companies like Meta, Apple, and HTC introduced groundbreaking headsets that aimed to redefine how we interact with digital spaces. But now, the focus has shifted from innovation to iteration. While we will see new premium headsets with high-end specs, many of them will be expensive niche products rather than mass-market disruptors.
The Key Players in 2025
Samsung & Google: «Project Moohan«
Samsung and Google’s much-anticipated mixed reality headset, based on Google’s Android XR, is the only major device confirmed for 2025. Featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, a possible 4.3K resolution per eye, and eye-tracking for foveated rendering, Project Moohan aims to compete with Apple’s Vision Pro. The device will emphasize mixed reality and AI integration, but expect a premium price tag of over $1,000.
Apple’s Next Move: M5 Revision or a More Affordable Vision Pro?
Apple may update the Vision Pro with an M5 chip, but this would be a minor upgrade rather than a second-generation device. Meanwhile, rumors persist that Apple is working on a cheaper headset, but its release timeline remains uncertain. Given Apple’s struggles in reducing production costs, we might not see this device before 2026.
Valve Index 2: Will Deckard Finally Arrive?
Valve’s long-rumored Index 2 (codenamed «Deckard») continues to be a mystery. New VR controllers have been spotted in SteamVR’s code, suggesting Valve is making moves, but without an official announcement, the future of PC VR remains uncertain.
Meta’s Horizon OS Expansion
Meta is licensing its Horizon OS to hardware partners like Asus, opening the door for third-party VR headsets. Although details are scarce, we know that Asus is reportedly working on a gaming-focused headset with eye and face tracking. If these devices launch in 2025, they could offer serious competition to Samsung and Google.
The Trend: Premium Devices for a Select Few
In 2025, expect a push toward high-end VR with ultra-lightweight designs and OLED microdisplays. However, many of these advancements will come at a steep price, making VR less accessible to the average consumer. Meta’s next-gen Quest headset isn’t expected until 2026, and with no major affordable alternative on the horizon, the industry may struggle to expand its user base this year.
Prediction: A Transitional Year with a Few Surprises
While 2025 may not deliver a game-changing VR moment, companies are laying the groundwork for future breakthroughs. Expect incremental improvements, experimental form factors, and continued competition among tech giants. And who knows? Valve, HTC, or even a surprise player might still shake things up before the year ends.
🚨Upcoming events! 🚨
To conclude, we would like to highlight two events that will surely be of interest to you!
1) IEEE International Conference on Metaverse 2025 (MVS 2025)
From August 18 to 22, 2025, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Researchers are invited to submit original and unpublished papers that advance the state of the art in metaverse technologies. Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings published by IEEE CPS and indexed in EI.
Key Dates:
- Tutorial/Workshop/Special Session Proposal Submission Deadline: February 15, 2025
- Full Paper Submission Deadline: March 31, 2025
- Authors Notification: May 31, 2025
- Demo/Poster/Work-in-Progress Paper Due: June 15, 2025
- Camera-ready Submission: June 30, 2025
Conference Tracks:
- Metaverse Computing and Communications: Focus on cloud/edge computing, IoT, and high-performance computing.
- Metaverse Interaction: Exploration of VR/AR/MR technologies, brain-computer interfaces, and real-time AI rendering.
- Metaverse Security: Addressing privacy, authentication, blockchain applications, and AI security.
- Applications and Emerging Techniques: Covering adaptive learning environments, smart machines, generative AI, and more.
- Law and Ethics in Metaverse: Discussing digital identity, intellectual property rights, virtual crime, and content moderation.
For detailed information on paper submission guidelines, conference topics, and updates, please visit the official conference website.
2) The 2nd UN Virtual Worlds Day
11–12 June 2025 in Turin, Italy.
This global event, co-organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) along with various UN agencies and partners, aims to explore how virtual worlds and AI can address global challenges and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The two-day program will feature high-level discussions, interactive showcases, and collaborative sessions focused on leveraging virtual technologies for sustainable development and inclusivity. Participation is free and open to experts, organizations, and individuals across all sectors. For more details and registration, visit the official event page.
That’s all for today! We will come back soon to your inboxes with more Metaversian news.
Stay tuned, because HUGE NEWS is coming!
See you soon!!
The newsletter of this month has been redacted by:
Giovanni Sorrentino
PhD Candidate in Law, Science & Technology, University of Bologna & University of Alicante
Inés Tremiño Guillén
Technologist and member of the Metaverse Chair
