“We do not want a Balkanisation of the metaverse”. That was the message from Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, who is among a number of high-powered tech executives in Davos this year.
His message at a round-table to discuss Meta’s priorities — in line with the World Economic Forum’s title for this year’s annual meeting: “Co-operation in a Fragmented World” — is fitting. He called for large tech companies and governments to work together to ensure interoperability between different versions of the metaverse that remains under development.
“We are at the foothills of the foothills of the metaverse” is how Mr Clegg described the nascent metaverse, which ultimately could create a hybrid world with a multitude of uses, including education and health. Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox said that “we are fully post-Covid now and looking at what 2023 brings”.
Technology, in what it presents in terms of opportunities and challenges, is on full display at the World Economic Forum this year. From the implications of the rapid development of AI to the changes in work patterns and industrial leaps, technological changes were woven into most sessions and discussions in Davos.
However, the Forum sounded a word of warning on Wednesday as it issued a report explaining that geopolitical instability raised the risk of a “catastrophic cyber attack in the next two years”.
According to the report, 93 per cent of cyber security experts and 86 per cent of business leaders believe that threat was due to the geopolitical turbulence in the world. US-China tension, the isolation of Russia and threats from Iran and North Korea were among the risks being discussed in Davos this week.
“De-risking rather than decoupling” is how President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen sees the relationship with China progressing. And while her statement, as part of her opening speech on Thursday, was on the general relationship, it applies to the technology side of the relationship.
Mr Clegg noted that while western apps such as Facebook and Twitter were not available in China, Chinese technology was available globally. It is an advantage that China currently enjoys but it remains unclear how it will develop with time.
One other theme related to technology was that of the financial impact of the current economic downturn on tech giants. Companies such as Meta, Amazon, Twitter, and more recently Microsoft, have announced thousands of redundancies.
However, most tech officials have considered these developments as part of an adjustment after mass hiring during the pandemic. Mr Clegg explained: “What is happening now is a course correction”. Mr Cox said Meta was “optimising for relevance” at time of continued turbulence in the digital realm not too dissimilar from the physical one.
