The creator of Apple’s iPod has warned of the so-called metaverse risks that could spawn more trolls and damage human interaction.
The virtual reality-based metaverse removes the ability “to look at the other person’s face,” Tony Fadell said.
“When you put technology in between that human connection, the toxicity happens,” he said.
The Metaverse is an area of virtual reality where people can create avatars of themselves to interact with others in online worlds.
It’s used to play games, but also in spaces like work and music concerts, and is often accessed through a virtual reality headset.
Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator and CEO of Facebook, is investing billions of dollars and hiring thousands of workers to create a metaverse.
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Facebook, which also owns Instagram, Whatsapp and Oculus, among others, changed the name of its parent company to Meta last year.
While Mr Fadell said the technology behind the metaverse had merits: “When you’re trying to create social interaction and social connection, if you can’t look the other person in the face, you can’t see their eyes, which you don’t have in real humanistic ways.” the connection.
“It becomes unintermediate and you have an opportunity at that point to create more trolls, people who hide behind things and then use that to their advantage to get attention.”
He added: “We need to regain control of that human connection, we don’t need more technology between us.”
The tech giant Microsoft and Epic Games, the owner of the computer game Fornite, are also investing heavily in the Metaverse.
Microsoft is adding 3D virtual avatars and environments to its Teams chat system, which is expected to go live later this year.
Mr. Zuckerberg has said the Metaverse is “an embodied internet where you don’t just look at content, you are in it.”
He told The Verge that people shouldn’t live by “little, glowing rectangles” like their phones.
“A lot of the meetings we have today, you see a grid of faces on a screen. That’s not how we process things either.”
However, the metaverse has also drawn criticism and security concerns due to its ability for humans to create avatars and hide behind them.
Ken Kutaragi, inventor of Sony’s PlayStation games console, said: “Would you rather be a polished avatar than the real you? This is essentially no different from anonymous forums.”
Mr. Fadell said: “We had the same problem with text-based commenting and with blogs, we had it with videos, now we’re going to have it in Metaverse.”
Mr. Fadell spoke after Apple announced it was discontinuing the iPod Touch.
The portable music device that hit the market 21 years ago revolutionized the way people listen to and store songs. Mr. Fadell also helped design Apple’s iPhone.
Commenting on the iPod, Mr. Fadell said, “I’ve been in the technology business long enough to know the drumbeat of technology and the advance of technology never ends and it’s been an amazing time for the iPod but unfortunately that’s our business so I have I’m used to this situation.”
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