A Meta spokesperson said the World Economic Forum will have a “leadership” role in the Metaverse.
Reclaim The Net reported that the World Economic Forum (WEF) will be a big part of the metaverse’s commitment to “inclusion and equity.”
WEF’s mission is to engage “the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
A post on WEF’s website said the forum is working to provide guidance on establishing “an ethical, inclusive, economically viable metaverse” online for all.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs and former British deputy prime minister, suggested that Big Tech companies shouldn't be solely responsible for the initiative.
“It mustn’t be shaped by tech companies on their own," the WEF post quoted Clegg as saying. "It needs to be developed openly with a spirit of cooperation between the private sector, lawmakers, civil society, academia and the people who will use these technologies."
Clegg detailed his vision for the metaverse in a blog post earlier this month.
“[A]ll of us have a stake in the metaverse. It isn’t an idea Meta has cooked up,” he said. “There won’t be a Meta-run metaverse, just as there isn’t a ‘Microsoft internet’ or ‘Google internet’ today.”
Clegg also discussed the “benefits” of rapid growth in technology that Meta wants to be involved in.
“Imagine, for example, how useful it could be to wear glasses that give you virtual directions in your line of sight, or immediate translations of street signs in foreign languages," he wrote. "Or even make it possible for you to have a conversation with someone who is thousands of miles away as a three-dimensional hologram in your living room instead of a head and shoulders on a flat screen.”
Clegg claimed, however, that such technology would not replace human experiences but would build off of the “interconnectedness the internet enables.”
“They won’t be a replacement for our experiences in daily life any more than the internet is today,” he said. “What they will be is a way to build on the interconnectedness the internet enables, so that we can do more and have even richer experiences. All this has the potential to unlock new opportunities and spark new ideas we haven’t yet imagined, and to have a huge positive impact both socially and economically.”
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