Meta employees disapprove of the Metaverse app

Published

6 months ago

October 12, 2022

Meta employees have given the metaverse app a thumbs down

Meta insiders have given its Metaverse app the big thumbs down amidst the company launching its new Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset this week.

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s flagship Metaverse app has been reported as buggy and is barely being used by the development team hired to create it.

In a leaked memo, Vishal Shah, the VP of the Metaverse instructed the development team that the app would remain in a “quality lockdown.”

The lockdown will remain in place until at least the end of 2022, in a bid to iron out issues.

It revealed Horizon Worlds would be made accessible to a larger audience for further testing, once the problems are resolved.

The app aims to facilitate users in building avatars so they can interact within virtual worlds.

Meta unveiled its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset this week. However, the device has been criticised for its $1500USD price tag.

Virtual reality headset

Its design has also come under fire. Some users complaining that the headwear is uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time.

Once it is available for purchase, the device can be used in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms, and by some developer apps.

The device does not work with Meta’s flailing Horizon Worlds app.

The general public is continually sold the utopian concept of the wonders of its Metaverse by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

It does not seem Meta’s current rate of technological development is in line with the bold claims being made.

The reality of the Metaverse seems to be much further away than Meta leads the public to believe.

Tech giants like Bill Gates are predicting “most meeting will take place in the Metaverse within the next three years.” However, others beg to differ.

Even when the technology of Meta’s version of the Metaverse is ready, mainstream adoption may be a highly optimistic concept within the timeframes being suggested.

By Dr Karen Sutherland, University of the Sunshine Coast and Dharana Digital

Elon Musk and experts call for six-month pause on A.I.

Published

1 day ago

March 30, 2023

ticker NEWS

The Future of Life Institute fears there may be potential risks to society

Elon Musk and a group of leading A.I. experts are calling for a six-month pause on developing systems, more powerful than OpenAI latest version of GPT-4.

The Future of Life Institute fears there may be potential risks to society.

In an open letter signed by some of the biggest and influential minds in tech, the Institute wants the pause so frameworks can be constructed to better handle A.I.

“Powerful A.I. systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” the open letter said.

British computer scientist Stewart Russell is a signatory to the open letter, and he explains what is occurring in the sector that scares him.

“With what is gestating in computer and research labs, is for general purpose A.I,” Russell declared recently. “A.I. that can do anything that the human mind can be turned to.

“Because of the enormous advantages machines have over humans, I expect general purpose A.I. will far exceed human capabilities in almost every dimension.”

Business

Alibaba shares soar as company breaks into parts

Published

2 days ago

March 29, 2023

ticker NEWS

Alibaba shares have soared as company executives announce a business shake-up

It’s been a good day for investors in Chinese tech giant Alibaba.

Shares in the company soared as executives announced a plan to break the business into parts.

Alibaba’s commerce leader says he will split the $220 billion empire into six individual units.

The major restructuring is the company’s biggest in 24 years.

Alibaba shares gained more than 14 per cent in New York and were up 13 per cent in Hong Kong.

The move follows reports Alibaba founder Jack Ma resurfaced in China this week after a long absence.

The units will have their own chief executives and boards of directors.

They will be allowed to raise capital and seek stock market listings.

Alibaba says the units will “capture opportunities in their respective markets and industries, thereby unlocking the value of Alibaba Group’s respective businesses”.

“The market is the best litmus test, and each business group and company can pursue independent fundraising and IPOs when they are ready,” says chief executive Daniel Zhang. #trending #featured

Tech

Facial recognition has been used a million times by U.S. police

Published

3 days ago

March 28, 2023

ticker NEWS

Controversial facial recognition has been used a million times by police to help track criminals

As facial recognition becomes more prominent, the founder of tech firm Clearview says his company has run nearly a million searches for U.S. police.

It’s also been revealed the company has scraped 30 billion images from platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, taken without users’ permissions.

The company has been fined numerous times in Europe and countries like Australia for breaches of privacy laws.

In the U.S., critics say the use of Clearview by authorities puts everyone into a “police line-up”.

The company’s high-tech system allows law enforcement to upload a photo of a face and find matches in a database comprising of billions of images it has collected.

It then provides links to where matching images appear online.

The tool is considered to be one of the world’s most powerful and accurate.

While the company is banned from selling its services to most U.S. companies, there is an exemption for police.