Mark Zuckerberg and Lex Fridman Record Podcast in the Metaverse
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to the Lex Fridman Podcast this week, but this time, they conducted their conversation as photorealistic avatars inside the metaverse.
Fridman, who is also an MIT AI researcher, has interviewed over 300 of the world’s brightest minds, including Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, discussing anything from business and science to history, intelligence, tech, and philosophy.
Fridman doesn’t typically do remote podcasts due to the nature of the intimate conversations he likes to have, however, this change seemed to work out well as Zuckerberg demoed the new VR avatars.
“It’s super interesting that this intimacy of conversation can be achieved remotely…it just feels like an incredible transition to something else, a different kind of communication. It breaks down all the barriers, like geographic physical barriers,” Fridman remarked.
Ahead of the conversation, both Fridman and Zuckerberg were scanned and entered the metaverse using advanced “codec avatars” with the Meta Quest Pro headset. While Zuckerberg acknowledged that the technology requires a lot of work, he also stated his belief that the scanning process needs to be much more accessible to the average wearer.
Zuckerberg clarified that the avatars’ creation involved scanning their faces, which naturally added to the super realistic appearances the avatars had of the two.
These scans were then converted into a codec, allowing for photorealistic avatars to be transmitted online. The outcome was avatars that mirrored human features closely, complete with wrinkles, freckles, and other imperfections.
“This gets to the core of what the vision around augmented reality is, of delivering a sense of presence no matter where you are in the world,” Zuckerberg said.
The Meta CEO further pointed out that these new avatars aimed to replicate nuanced human emotions, especially the expressions portrayed by the eyes, in the metaverse. After showcasing an early version of these avatars last year, Zuckerberg had faced significant trolling, with many comparing them to graphics from old video games like 1996’s Quake and 2007’s Second Life.
While the creation of these highly detailed avatars currently demands considerable resources and time, Zuckerberg foresees a time when users could craft their personal avatars with just a smartphone.
Throughout the hour-long program, Zuckerberg and Fridman also discussed Meta’s Quest 3, the nature of reality, large language models (LLMs), and the future of humanity. Fridman time stamped each of the topics throughout the programming, for anyone who wants to watch.
This interview and technological showcase come at a pivotal time for Meta in the emerging smart eyewear arena, following its Sept. 27 announcement that unveiled the Ray-Ban Meta smart eyewear glasses and the Quest 3 mixed reality headset.
Editor’s note: This article was written by an nft now staff member in collaboration with OpenAI’s GPT-4.