Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, has announced a slew of ambitious AI initiatives. He created a rudimentary virtual world – including an island, trees, and a beach – with Builder Bot, a new AI feature in Meta’s Horizon metaverse. The young CEO declared in an interview that “AI is the key to unlocking the Metaverse”. Judging by that statement, we can presume that the full potential of the metaverse is yet to be unlocked.

Mark Zuckerberg also revealed a plan to create a worldwide speech translator. “The ability to communicate with anybody, in any language, is a superpower that has been sought after for a long time,” he said. If what he’s telling is the truth, AI-powered supremacy is now being created. Unfortunately, it seems to be a lengthy process.

The demonstration

The announcement was joined by a video with an early released demo of how Builder Bot will work. In the video, an avatar of Mark Zuckerberg was seen filling a computer-generated environment, with voice instructions given to a floating model of the bot in question. “Let’s add some clouds,” said Mark Zuckerberg through his custom character, as some pixelated clouds appeared. He also added some sound effects of ocean waves and seagulls. It’s been said that Meta’s virtual world and AI systems will prioritize privacy and will be transparent, as well as responsible.

Facebook’s AI division named Meta AI said that projects such as Builder Bot are real “breakthroughs in artificial intelligence” that will enhance what we know now as the metaverse. Facebook has been developing artificial intelligence for the past ten years, and one of its leading experts is Yann LeCun, who leads AI at the company. In January, Facebook declared that it had developed a new AI supercomputer that will be the world’s fastest when completed in mid-2022.

For the time being, however, the technology appears to be in its early stages. The environment Zuckerberg produced appeared flatter and with a lower resolution than previous metaverse demos.