The year of efficiency still does not manifest itself in Goal. After publish financial results corresponding to the first quarter of 2023, the technology company hinted the crisis he is going through because of the metaverse. Reality Labs, the division in charge of developing VR and AR technologies registered a loss of 3,992 million dollars.
Although this department generated income of 339 million, the percentage is minuscule compared to that obtained by advertising or mobile applications. There is no doubt that Reality Labs continues to be a drag on Meta, although this does not seem to matter. The company stated that its VR division’s operating losses will continue to rise.
Reality Labs condenses all virtual reality and augmented reality products, such as the Meta Quest, as well as the associated software. The metaverse is one of the pillars of this division and Zuckerberg remains adamant that technology will pay off in the future. Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs, stated a few weeks ago that the virtual universe will come, although it will take time.
The director of Meta confessed to various media that the metaverse will become profitable thanks to advertising And trade. The million-dollar investment will be recovered sooner or later, which is why the company is making use of researchers and experts to shape the virtual universe. Despite this, Meta confirmed that Reality Labs and its applications division operate with less than 10,000 people after the batch of layoffs that occurred in March.
During the results presentation, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that they had a good quarter and that their communities continue to grow. The head of Meta assured that they are more efficient and that they can develop products faster. “This puts us in a stronger position to deliver on our long-term vision,” Zuckerberg said.
Although the metaverse is part of that vision, zucks and company have their sights set on artificial intelligence. The Facebook co-founder said that his work in AI is generating good results in your applications and business. Let’s remember that Meta has stepped on the accelerator in recent months to face Microsoft and Google in the implementation of this technology.
A few days ago, the company presented the Segment Anything Model, a system capable of selecting objects in an image. Also known as SAM, the AI has the ability to identify the pixels associated with an object specific. This artificial intelligence could be applied in scientific research or used to identify articles through augmented reality.
Meta also has Cicero, an AI that can play war in diplomacy, as well as a clone of DALL-E known as Make-A-Scene. The efficiency in artificial intelligence contrasts with that obtained by Reality Labs During the last years. The popularity of virtual reality is in free fall, as are the sales of associated devices.
One of the most notable losses of 2022 was the departure of John Carmack, who served as Oculus’ chief technology officer for more than a decade. “We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly sabotage ourselves and waste effort,” he said. Carmack was not satisfied with the development of the metaverse.which he strongly criticized during the last Meta Connect.