The tech giant continues to develop VR hardware and experiences, though that no longer seems to be its primary focus.
Meta has embraced an open source approach to deploying its Llama AI model. / Meta
While Meta branded itself as a VR-first company not long ago, announcements made today at Meta Connect, the company’s annual developer conference, indicate that the tech giant is increasingly focused on augmented reality (AR) and AI.
Most notably, the company introduced Llama 3.2, the latest version of its family of open-source large language models. The new models are multimodal and capable of responding to both text and images. Neither is yet available in the European Union, which recently enacted new regulation around AI, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the keynote that he’s “eternally optimistic that we will figure that out.”
Onstage in Menlo Park, California, Zuckerberg described the company’s commitment to open sourcing as part of a broader and intractable trend – one that will benefit both AI developers and users. “We’ve reached an inflection point for the industry…we all know where this is going,” he said.
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The entrepreneur took to the stage today wearing a baggy black T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘aut Zuck aut nihil,’ a play on the famous Latin phrase, ‘aut Caesar aut nihil,’ which translates roughly to, ‘either Caesar or nothing.’ (A little shameless egotism or a tongue-in-cheek allusion to his larger-than-life aspirations? You decide.)
Like most big tech players, Meta made AI a key focus following the launch – and subsequent explosion – of ChatGPT almost two years ago. According to Zuckerberg, the company has made significant progress: Meta AI now has around 500m users, a “jaw-dropping” figure in the words of Jeremy Goldman, an Emarketer analyst focused on marketing and tech. “Meta has transformed from just a social media company into an AI powerhouse.”
Other AI-related announcements at the event include AI-generated avatars for creators and automatic dubbing between English and Spanish on Instagram and Facebook Reels. Meta AI also now comes with voices – similar to enhancements recently made to ChatGPT – modeled after celebrities like John Cena, Judi Dench and Awkwafina.
“It’s easy to see why something like this would be appealing to a brand or creator trying to reach a wider audience,” said Minda Smiley, a senior analyst at Emarketer specializing in the social media sector.
The company is also releasing upgrades to its AR smart glasses, developed in partnership with Ray-Ban. The updates are designed to be more attractive and natural for everyday use. A user can, for example, now simply look at an assortment of fruits and ask, “Hey Meta, what kind of smoothie can I make with these?” A real-time translation feature for English, French, Spanish and Italian is also being added to the glasses.
Practical use cases such as these make Meta’s smart glasses “the Trojan horse for consumer AI," according to Tipatat Chennavasin, general partner of the Venture Reality Fund, which invests in early-stage web3 and emerging tech companies.
Zuckerberg also unveiled Orion, a new model of smart glasses that Meta is, for now, only releasing to a small cohort of developers.
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Although AI and AR took center stage at Meta Connect, the tech titan made it clear that it isn’t abandoning its metaverse business.
The company debuted the Quest 3S headset, which will retail for $299 – a relatively paltry cost compared with Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro headset, which was released earlier this year but has seen sales lag.
Along with the Quest 3S is big brother Quest 3, a more sophisticated model that will cost between $649 and $499.
When Facebook rebranded as Meta in 2021, it made metaverse development - primarily VR experiences and hardware – a core focus. Meta invested heavily in its Quest headset, generating initial excitement among brands eager to explore VR marketing. However, many quickly – and quietly – backed out as consumer interest failed to materialize. The lukewarm reception of Apple’s Vision Pro underscores a common view: VR headsets are still too bulky and uncomfortable for extended use. But with the launch of the latest iteration of its Quest headset, it’s clear that Meta plans to forge ahead with its metaverse dream.
But some experts doubt that the effort is ever going to work. “VR headsets, despite Meta’s assertion, will not go mainstream,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “They’re too cumbersome, and people can only tolerate them in short bursts.”
Given VR’s limited appeal, it’s unlikely that many advertisers’ heads are turning at the announcement of the new Quest headset, according to Emarketer’s Smiley. “The tech provides lots of experimentation and potential for marketing, but... it’s not something your average marketer is paying much attention to right now since it hasn’t hit the mainstream.”
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In addition to the updated Quest headsets are new-and-improved avatars for Horizon Worlds, Meta’s flagship VR platform.
Zuckerberg introduced Hyperspaces for VR, which he described as “photorealistic” environments. They look something like early iterations of a Star Trek-style Holodeck. As an example, he showed a virtual Hyperspace modeled after the recording studio where Green Day recorded their 19TK album, Dookie.
Zuckerberg closed his keynote with a short soliloquy on the company’s vision for the future. “All this comes together to build what I think is going to be the future of human connection and the next generation of computing platforms,” he said. “This is such an exciting time to be building.”
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