TECH NEWS – Mark Zuckerberg’s first interview, filmed entirely on Metaverzum, is a bit robotic. But it’s not just the technology…

Mark Zuckerberg, the head of the organisation formerly known as Facebook, has completed his first interview, conducted entirely in the company’s eponymous Metaverse. It’s all at once fascinating, scary and ‘meh’.

Zuckerberg was interviewed by Lex Fridman, a podcaster with whom he has spoken several times before but never like this.

Zuckerberg and Fridman were far apart, Fridman in Austin, Texas, and Zuckerberg presumably at Meta’s headquarters in California.

Both were subjected to detailed physical scans for the interview. As well as some kind of facial expression and movement learning process. This is perhaps similar to a more complex version of the biometrics used to secure smartphones, including fingerprints and training routines used to learn faces.

Zuckerberg explains that this data is then put into a code, which is then combined with sensor data from a VR headset. From this, a lifelike digital avatar is created. What’s really clever about this approach is that it means the bandwidth required is relatively limited. Since each party has a copy of the other’s digital avatar, the amount of data necessary for animation is much less than, for example, for transmitting high-definition digital video.

So, in theory, you get something more realistic than video but with less bandwidth. But how realistic? Fridman has uploaded a 2D rendering of the interview on his YouTube channel, featuring both avatars.

Unfortunately, the video is only 1080p. But even at such a relatively low resolution, you can see that the avatars have a pretty clear CGI feel. They are good, sure, but no one with even a moderate knowledge of modern CGI would mistake them for live video.

Of course, the main characters’ personalities arguably don’t help. Neither Fridman nor Zuckerberg seem terribly emotional. Their real selves can be quite robotic.

So the extent to which the synthetic feel of these digital avatars is due to the digital rendering, or just to the actual holding and apparent discomfort of these rather unusual protagonists, is an open question.

Still, the avatars have a slightly flat, digitalised feel. This is probably not entirely due to the physical posture of Zuckerberg and Fridman. Nonetheless, the experience is undoubtedly orders of magnitude more immersive and immersive when actually using a VR headset.

Likewise, based on the uploaded video, it seems Meta has solved the delay problem. The two parties seem to be having a perfectly natural, smooth conversation even though there is quite a lot of processing that needs to take place between the speech or facial expression and the detection of the behaviour, its translation into code and its transmission to the other user.

As for the hardware used, it looks like the Meta Quest Pro headset at a glance. Also, a set of rather large earphones. In truth, that remains the main drawback to this kind of experience – the cumbersome hardware to wear.

Source: YouTube