Mark Zuckerberg is left alone in defending the metaverse: Tim Cook and other CEOs already rule out the idea

The metaverse is the great bet of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, formerly Facebook, the social network founded by the millionaire entrepreneur and which he wants to take to another level since his name change.

It is so clear that last fall it announced that it would invest 10,000 million dollars (10,200 million euros, at current exchange rates) in the construction of the metaverse, with the goal of getting 1,000 million people to enter it.

“If we pull it off, we’ll build a revenue stream as big as our current ad business in this decade. I think that’s really exciting,” he shared with his employees about Meta’s ambitions in July.

The metaverse, according to him, will improve people’s quality of life: “I don’t want people to spend more time in front of their screens. I just want the time people spend in front of them to be better,” he explained.

However, the path is not free of obstacles. Proof of this is both the cases of virtual harassment and the loss of more than 70,000 million euros of his personal fortune during 2022, to which the Meta figures would be added, as Zuckerberg already predicted, who anticipated that “significant” amounts would be lost. ” of money and that the products would not be viable for another 10 or 15 years.

The metaverse already concentrates the worst of the internet: episodes of sexual harassment, gang rapes, hate crimes and conspiracy theories multiply

Also, It doesn’t seem like everyone is as clear about it as Zuckerberg. in terms of betting on the metaverse, be it the specific concept and approach of Meta, the devices that would be used, or even the term itself.

The last to show his doubts about the metaverse was Tim CookCEO of Apple, who has thus joined an important list of various personalities and senior officials from the world of technology and business who question him, for different reasons.

“I think it’s important for people to understand what something is. And I’m not sure a normal person can tell what the metaverse is.”has expressed to the Dutch medium Bright on Friday 30 Cook, who is more supportive of virtual reality for being “something you can immerse yourself in” and “use it in a positive way” but without “living your whole life that way”.

In fact, the word “metaverse” has only been mentioned once at Apple’s earnings conferences so far this year, compared to more than 35 mentions at Meta’s. It is just one example of the discrepancies that Apple and Meta present on the metaverse, in what Zuckerberg has defined as a “deep and philosophical competition” of 2 different visions.

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Similarly, they have also ‘fled’ from the term metaverse Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap —is “fairly ambiguous and hypothetical”; if a group of people were asked to describe him, all of their definitions would be “totally different”, he has stated to Guardian-, Y David Limp, head of devices at Amazonwith the same reasoning, considering that there is no “common definition”, informs TheVerge.

Almost a year ago, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Googlealready showed his doubts by warning that the metaverse “is not necessarily the best for human society” and opining that artificial intelligence technology is a kind of “giant and false god” that can create unhealthy and parasocial relationships.

“All the people who talk about metaverses are talking about worlds that are more satisfying than the current world: you are richer, more handsome, more beautiful, more powerful, faster. So, in a few years, people will choose to spend more time with the glasses on the metaverse. And who sets the rules? The world will be more digital than physical”, which does not have to be positive, he clarified to New York Times.

He has also criticized this new digital dimension Tony Fadell, one of the first Apple engineers who invented the iPod and now co-founder of Nest, for whom “the metaverse is a mistake” because it does not allow “a real personal connection”: “Fuck the metaverse,” he snapped in statements to wired.

Equally critical, and with similar expressiveness, has been Phil Libin, former head of Evernote and now CEO of the video conferencing company Mmhmm, after trying a software of Meta for meetings in virtual reality.

“I had a strong feeling that it was going to be shit, but I went with the highest possible hope that I would be pleasantly surprised,” he begins explaining in an interview with Business Insider. Finally, he says that his instinct was correct, as “it was only tolerable for a few minutes”.

The vision of the metaverse presented by Meta “is an old idea”, “not very creative”, tried many times and “has never worked”, Libin maintained in February.

Finally, against the metaverse of Meta and Zuckerberg are the criticisms at the end of last year of Nick CleggVice President of Communications and Global Affairs for Metawho rated the headset (helmet) of the company’s virtual reality as “gimmicky” and “terrifying”, in a conversation with The Financial Times.

Other various issues also appear on the side of doubt, such as the regulatory challenge it poses or the possible ethical, psychological and social risks of the metaverse: “Whoever controls (an important part of the) metaverse could control an important part of reality”, collects the white paper of Telefónica, whose executive president, José María Álvarez-Pallete, trusts, however, that people will spend up to 4 hours a day in these new virtual worlds.