Rapidly evolving technologies are exponentially impacting businesses and society. It is imperative that tomorrow’s leaders take on a more open and progressive mindset to embrace innovations – and adapt these into their workplace. This article from Ayman AlRashed, CEO of Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence looks into the business potential of AI within the trending Metaverse.
“What we want is a machine that can learn from experience,” and that the “possibility of letting the machine alter its own instructions provides the mechanism for this.” Those were Alan Turing’s words in quite possibly the earliest public lecture (London, 1947) to mention computer (artificial) intelligence. Today, we use Artificial Intelligence (AI) daily, from Tesla vehicles driving us to work to Siri writing our emails to Netflix recommending us movies with personalized suggestions.
In October of 2021, we saw Facebook rebrand itself as Meta and announce its vision and products toward the Metaverse. This was followed by Microsoft's announcement of its own vision and strategy for the Metaverse. I could not help but think about what a Metaverse powered and driven by AI would look like.
First, what is the Metaverse? In essence, it is combining the physical space and the digital space through one shared space accessed via Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies - for now.
Now, what could AI experiences in the metaverse feel like; in home, work, social interactions, education, and sports?
What would digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa be like in the Metaverse?
In education, imagine wearing your AR glasses while walking home and asking your digital assistant to display the names of the objects you see on the road in the language you are trying to learn. It could pronounce the words for you, ask you to say them, and correct your pronunciation.
While playing sports, imagine wearing your AR glasses while playing tennis, and your digital coach instructs you on "how" and "when" to swing the racket until you get the timing right.
During your work, imagine wearing a VR headset to attend a virtual meeting with attendees speaking different languages while the digital assistant translates what they are saying in real time, helps you take meeting notes, and highlights the most important discussion topics based on the intensity of certain discussion moments.
In social interactions, for example, if you want to converse with a deaf person, the holographic digital assistant can act as a translator, translating between the spoken and sign languages.
In your home, imagine coming home to your holographic digital assistant that will follow you as you walk around the house, waiting for your commands, questions, and interaction. For example, you ask the digital assistant to order a replacement for "this" as you point your finger to a broken light bulb.
Infusing AI into the Metaverse for a smarter business is inevitable and will transform and revolutionize industries and businesses. It is important to understand how real-world businesses can go back and forth between the physical world and the Metaverse and how interactions between the two worlds can happen persistently and seamlessly.
Let’s take two sample scenarios and put them through the Metaverse, then enrich them with AI to see what they would look like.
Using a VR headset, your customers can visit your store in the Metaverse and as they walk in, they’ll start seeing the products on the shelves that are tailored specifically for them - using AI. Foods and flavors that they prefer, clothes from brands that they like, and cups in shapes and colors that are specifically chosen for them.
When they finish shopping, and as they pay for their shopping basket, orders will be placed in the physical world from multiple stores to gather the different items they ordered before they get delivered to their doorstep.
You are a doctor about to perform surgery on your patient, so you put on your VR headset and start to operate on the patient in the Metaverse that is in front of you, while the patient is physically in another city. As you move your hands in the Metaverse, a robot in the hospital is mimicking your actions to perform the surgery on the patient, and every time you are about to make an incision, graphs and charts showing what the patient’s vital signs and overall health will look like if you perform that incision – using AI.
Although the technologies to build such AI applications in the Metaverse now exist, it is yet fraught with challenges. It requires advancements in many AI domains such as natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning and reasoning. For example, we have to teach AI how to see and recognize the world through our eyes and to understand and speak the many languages spoken worldwide. Another challenge ahead is to find a way to blend these technologies seamlessly into our lives.
With the world inching ever closer to a seamless physical and digital way of life, leaders from business and government need to start incorporating AI technologies – from data insights to automation – into their strategies in order to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. Leaders who successfully leverage these innovations will be the ones shaping the future of new upcoming industries.
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”- Alan Turing, 1950
In the end, Alan Turing envisioned today's AI seven decades earlier. Now, we look forward to those who will envision the future of AI.
Towards building the next generation of AI, towards building the future of AI.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the priority growth sectors in Saudi Arabia. As the flagship leadership development program of Mohammed bin Salman Foundation “Misk“, 2030 Leaders aims to equip leaders with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to deliver on Vision 2030, including preparing leaders for an AI-driven future.
Ayman Al Rashed
CEO of SCAI
