The Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence are closer than you think
A specialist from the University of Monterrey explains how tangible these technologies already are on a day-to-day basis; she calls for developing critical thinking skills that allow you to get the most out of these tools
Both job training for first-time employees and classes for new generations of university students take place in immersive and virtual worlds or platforms. Intelligent personal assistants, in addition to performing simple tasks such as telling the time of day or today’s temperature, are now capable of writing reports and letters as well as people.
The above is not something taken from a science fiction novel, but the reality that the metaverse and artificial intelligence have brought. And it is that these tools, increasingly mentioned in the media and in conversations between family members, colleagues and friends, are already an important part of daily life, says Julián Nevárez Montes, director of postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Education and Humanities of the University from Monterrey and a specialist in teaching with a focus on technology.
The metaverse is any virtually generated space where people, with the help of special glasses and equipment, can move and interact with three-dimensional elements. It is becoming more and more popular in the video game industry. If they have played Minecraft or Fortnite, to mention examples, they have been in a metaverse”, he indicates. “And artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool that can handle millions of pieces of data using the information that is fed to it in order to carry out tasks or produce particular outcomes.”
He adds that perhaps the most recognizable examples of such technology are the Siri or Alexa services or, thanks to last week’s news, ChatGPT or Bing’s AI (with all its strange results). But there are more: have you ever entered a web page where your questions as a customer are answered by a chatbot? That is AI.
There are even platforms that combine the possibilities of both the metaverse and AI. A case like this is Gatebox, which has changed the paradigm of interpersonal relationships: it is a device of Japanese origin that allows you to live and interact with virtual characters, providing blockchain development company and causing a sensation among the single population of Japan.
“There are even brands that are already breaking paradigms and crossing the barrier towards the use of these technologies”, points out the UDEM manager. He gives as an example DHL, the multinational parcel and courier company, which has used a metaverse to train employees to handle valuable or fragile cargo. And Walmart has done something similar by integrating metaverses so that its customers have the experience of going to the supermarket without leaving home, giving them the opportunity to include those irresistible last-minute purchases in the cart.
Critical Thinkers
The UDEM director affirms that, although the metaverse and AI offer multiple benefits, in the current era of accelerated technological development it is necessary to find the healthy limits of these systems: “in the midst of all this exploration of possibilities, norms and regulations that will tell us how far we can go and what are the implications in the educational and professional fields”.
Perhaps one of the cases that best illustrate this breakthrough, he says, is that of the aforementioned ChatGPT, an AI capable of writing academic papers and even passing exams. Apart from the fact that the tool opens a new field for plagiarism and academic dishonesty, its system obtains a good amount of information from Wikipedia, which is easily edited and is not 100% reliable: “So, one of the big challenges is just that : that we take as done any work that the AIs give us without having the criteria to question how true it is ”.
“To summarize, we must distinguish between information and knowledge. The difference between the two is precisely the processing, analysis and organization blockchain development company of the data. AIs in particular still lack this human quality of discerning the information coming their way. For this reason, it is essential that we and the new generations develop the critical thinking skills that lead us to knowledge. Thus we will see that technologies do not compete with us, but are our tools”.
