Meta Is Building a Digital Voice Assistant for Metaverse Push

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms is building a digital voice assistant to help people interact hands-free with physical devices, such as the company's Portal video-calling device and, eventually, augmented-reality glasses. From a report: Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company is building the assistant in preparation for the so-called metaverse, a more immersive version of the internet that will let people interact online through virtual and AR glasses. Digital assistants will need to "learn the way humans do" to help users navigate this new online world, Zuckerberg said during a presentation on Wednesday. "When we have glasses on our faces, that will be the first time an AI system will be able to really see the world from our perspective -- see what we see, hear what we hear and more," Zuckerberg added, saying he hopes to eventually build AI assistants that can "move between virtual and physical worlds." The AI assistant doesn't have a name, but Meta is calling the effort "Project CAIRaoke."

Great

[ickleberry]

The more he pours into it the worse it will flop

Re:

[Anne Thwacks]

"Alexa - annoy the neighbours!"

How about 'no?'

[nightflameauto]

The Metaverse is sounding more and more like Zuckerberg's fever dream rather than a legitimate attempt to create something. Like every couple days we get another new gem of sci-fi level geekery that's definitely, almost, maybe, possibly gonna happen attached to the Metaverse. Computers do not think. There won't be any possibility that they "see" or "hear" the world like us because they don't have the capacity to see and hear like us. They'll take visual data and audio data, run it through some machine learning algorithms and spit out results, but that doesn't mean they are seeing or hearing like us. And the idea that we can use this type of language to blur the lines between human and machine seems way off-base to me.

Re:

[MNNorske]

I'm just reminded of EVE's "walking in stations". So much effort put into something that actually made it worse to interact with the system.

I can see if your primary driver is to create a game that the 3d immersive experience could be quite interesting. I could also see where using a 3d immersive headset experience could give a great way for physical engineers and architects to interact with the things they are designing. For me as a software engineer I would like to have nearly infinite screen real e

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Yep. The use case you describe is the one thing I can see these headsets being good at. Massive virtual monitors that you can move your head to get different parts of the monitor. Gaming I'm give or take on, as I do think the tech is cool, but games are so crappy for the most part it's hard for me to get into them anymore.

Yeah, Zuck seems to be losing it.

[localroger]

I'm sure he has some fantasy that all this deep learning of personal experience will bridge the gap to... something something. Problem is, that's what it is, a fantasy. Look at all the training hours that have gone into self-driving cars and the sometimes bonehead mistakes they still make. And roads are a lot more structured than the personal space we navigate with our bodies. This is an idea that is not even advanced enough to be broken.

Only Zuck would

[NawShucksNo]

Look at existing voice assistants and think, people want these things to have cameras.

We don't call Google Alphabet

[rsilvergun]

Who's paying who here at /. To call Facebook "meta"? And how much?

Re:

[Catvid-22]

Well, it's easier to call FB Meta because the Meta is supposed to stand for something, while Alphabet is just a plain silly attempt (at best) to upstage Amazon and Apple in a dictionary listing of stock market options. (They should have called it Aardvark to eliminate all future rivals.) Hazy or clear, Zuckerberg at least has or has had a "vision" for the Meta universe, while Page and Brin has no apparent plans for Alphabet aside from it being the Google holding company, of more interest to daytraders than

"Meta" stands for...

[Sebby]

... "Metastasize"

Yawn

[cjonslashdot]

I can see it: people sitting in the mom's basement with a headset over their eyes, saying "get me a beer", and then drinking a virtual beer - not very satisfying, because it's fake!

Please don't encourge this Meta Marketing Bullshit

[BrendaEM]

Why ever drink a company's marketing campaign like it isn't a bullshit attempt to hide their past misdeeds.

MetaFaced...

[Gription]

Can anyone think of a company that they would trust less running their voice assistant?

Seriously

Oh YAY! *Finger waggle*

[Chas]

ANOTHER voice assistant...

Wish I had more money

[sentiblue]

I don't have a million dollars, but if I did I'd bet all of it in the fact that the digital Meta voice assistant will record people's commands and near by conversations at all times, not just after "hey Metaverse"... and then store them for review. Mr. Z will randomly listen to them in realtime just to satisfy the need to stalk people.