Is It About Gen Alpha And Gen Z?

Pradeep Khanna, who has multiple global roles in the Metaverse/XR ecosystem, looks at the post-ChatGPT Metaverse trends and timelines.

- Pradeep Khanna

As the below graph shows, Metaverse has trended down 75% over the last 12 months (source data - Google). Did this downward trend have anything to do with launch of ChatGPT on 30 November 2022 or the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on 10 March 2023?

As obvious from the below graph, Metaverse was already on a downward trend, which got further accentuated (barring a brief spike on 15 Oct 2022) as Generative Al and ChatGPT took over the world. It also brought into focus the difference between Immersive Technologies and Al.

Even though VR and AR (including rebranded MR and XR) have been around for 25+ years, immersive technologies and experiences have remained emerging with large parts of the world's population still grappling to understand even the difference between VR and AR.

When Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021, XR morphed into Metaverse and exploded into our world. Soon, the entire world including cats and dogs wanted to know what a Metaverse was. While there was tremendous curiosity, lots of education was and is still required for the world at large to better understand immersive technologies.

In contrast, Al has been going mainstream for last couple of years. Even the debates around whether Al would take jobs or create higher skill jobs has long abated. What Generative Al and ChatGPT did was to stretch our minds to the power of Al and soon debates involved ethical Al.