Facebook announced this Monday, October 18, a plan to create 10,000 new highly qualified jobs in the European Union over the next five years. This investment concerns the creation of a metaverse, this parallel virtual universe, considered as the next Internet revolution.
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Almost 20 years after the ephemeral Second Life, Mark Zuckerberg dreams of creating a new parallel world, on the model of ” metaverse “. This is the big project of the boss of Facebook, who plans to recruit 10,000 engineers by 2026 in Europe. For Facebook, it is about relying “ on our long-standing European presence and place the region at the heart of our plans to help build the metaverse ».
What is the metaverse? For Laurent Solly, the boss of Facebook France and vice-president of Facebook for Southern Europe, invited on France Info, it’s ” l’Internet of tomorrow ” and ” a revolution as big as mobile internet “. For vice-presidents Nick Clegg and Javier Olivan, it is ” a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies such as virtual reality and increased “. It is a virtual universe which will make it possible to have online interactions to create ” new creative, social and economic opportunities “. Work, play, education, but also online shopping and artistic creation … Everything that we do today in real life will be possible in this virtual universe.
A premise: openness and interoperability
A decentralized universe without governance since ” no company will own and operate the metaverse. Like the Internet, its main feature will be its openness and interoperability. »Remind MM. Clegg and Olivan. And why Europe as the nerve center rather than the United States, India, Africa or Asia?
For Facebook, “ The European Union has a number of advantages that make it an ideal location for tech companies: a large consumer market, top-notch universities and, most importantly, top-notch talent. Facebook cites the examples of the biotechnology German with the very first vaccine To MRNA or Sweden set to become the world’s first cashless company by 2023.
Vice-president of Facebook, Laurent Solly details the contours of the project. © Dailymotion, France Info
What impact on social relations?
In fact, Facebook has already invested heavily in Europe, particularly in artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The social network thus recalls that it is financially helping the Technical University of Munich for ” the opening of its first major European research laboratory in artificial intelligence “, And Facebook also quotes its” Fair accelerator program (Facebook AI Research) in France, and the Facebook Reality Labs office in Ireland ”.
At the microphone of France Info, Mr. Solly also spoke about the ethical and security issues related to this virtual parallel universe, and he announced the creation of a $ 50 million investment fund to lay the foundations for this metaverse, particularly regarding its impact. on social relations. ” The Metaverse is not a one-size-fits-all product that a company can build on its own. Just like the Internet, the metaverse exists, whether Facebook is there or not, say again Facebook. And it won’t be built overnight. Many of these products will not be fully realized for the next 10 to 15 years. While this is frustrating for those of us keen to take the plunge, it gives us time to ask the tough questions about how they should be built.. »
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