cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/56884744
AI infrastructure will provides Meta with a “strategic advantage,” Zuckerberg said. He once said almost the exact same thing about the metaverse.
Zuckerberg finally got tired of the METAverse being useless and going nowhere.
But he still thinks he is some sort of visionary tech genius. And he wants to capture the next big thing before anybody else.
If he were smart he would have realized the metaverse was a stupid idea years ago. But unfortunately for him he is not very smart, he was just lucky and ruthless with facebook, and now he has become a megalomaniac drunk with the power of his billions.
It is only months ago he thought he could create strong AI by building a massive LLM thinking strong AI would be an emerging property of massively concentrated stupidity. I think he at least has realized that is not the case.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/30/zuckerberg-superintelligence-meta-ai
Meta cutting previous failed ventures to pay for next failed venture.
Lol I wonder if they’ll rename the company again to try to make it look like AI in general is them.
Alternate headline:
“New shiny thing distracts idiot CEO into moving funds from one money pit to another.”
idk vr never felt like a pit, just early, comfort and fov was an issue, literally my main issue was not being able to see my phone without taking it off. Once that is solved I could use it indefinitely, taking it off and putting it back on was annoying and it always felt wrong after
I mean I’m a big fan of VR but it’s clearly been a money pit for meta, their massive investment in it is never going to pay back, they were betting on selling “metaverse” real estate rather than making money on the hardware
they weren’t paying attention when people tried that very same thing in SecondLife
Somehow they also made it worse than second life.
That whole thing was weird. Like, even if it was a perfect simulation, it still wouldn’t keep me dry and warm like real real estate, nor could I keep my stuff there.
They tried to jump right into the “popular thing drives high demand for popular spaces in popular thing” and skip the whole “make thing popular” step, banking on their name and people thinking it’ll make them a ton of money.
Though tbh I can’t say that was necessarily the wrong move (at least not if their entire goal is maximizing gains), since it wasn’t going to get popular like they wanted in the first place, so skipping that step and going straight to fleecing those dumb enough to throw money at it might have made the most sense.
That said, I think they put more money into it than they got out of it, so I doubt that it was deliberate. Zuck probably just thought if he paid people to make it, users would just flock to it and it would be as popular as fictional VR worlds are, despite missing the tactile VR system they tend to use or the whole “VR world is popular (or the focus of everyone’s life)” being a plot point rather than the consequence of someone building the world and people choosing to spend their time and money there.
Also, I’m in the demographic that probably would have been the most interested (like as a user of VR, not someone looking to just make money from it), but their offering didn’t even raise enough curiosity for me to check out what they made. There is an anti-meta bias in play, but even if it had been offered by a separate entity, I still wouldn’t have been interested because it sounded enshitified from the moment of concept.
Genuinely love vr/ar, glad theyve pushed it enough that its not just seen as the cardboard stuff anymore
A friend had me try his quest 3 (I think?) and for the 15 minutes I used it, it was amazing (except I could see the pixels, he said it was impossible and that it must have been a focus issue, but, well…).
Of course I would never buy anything made by Meta, so I’m waiting for the Steam Frame, but it’s definitely and interesting technology!
The quest 3 has like 25 ppd (pixels per degree) and the human limit is like at least 60 ppd. So your friend needs some glasses
Metaverse? What meta verse? AI man, AI!
Until the next shiny jingly turd comes by, that is
I’m hoping the new steam frame will allow me to finally ditch my quest 2 and meta account
The Frame will probably cost more because it won’t be subsidized by surveillance capitalism. I’d rather pay more and actually own my hardware instead of paying a down payment in cash to take possession of a device Meta still owns, and then pay with my data indefinitely afterwards.
A used index will probably cost a 3rd of the price of the Steam Frame ATM, just saying. All you have to do is buy a replacement face gasket (which valve sells for like 10 USD, or you can use a more padded aftermarket one).
No need to wait if you’re trying to get a non-meta headset at meta headset prices (since the steam frame bundle will probably have to be at least 700 USD)
