TECH NEWS – The title alone makes you laugh out loud, but beneath the surface, there’s more to chuckle about.

The study by Deloitte says the metaverse has the potential to push US GDP (gross domestic product) up by about 2.4% by 2035. In monetary terms, that means about $700 billion. It includes the average video game VR and AR entertainment and manufacturing, medical, and defense uses. According to Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, the US is well positioned to harness the potential of the metaverse and lead its international development. Meta’s paper cites several reports, including that the European Union could increase its economic potential by $538.29 billion by 2035 using Meta’s products, equivalent to 1.3-2.4% of GDP. Meta could contribute $33.86 billion to the economy of Canada over the same period. Covering the entire world, it represents $3.6 trillion per year.

It is worth reading the small print, as the international report’s estimate does not consider the growth of the world’s population (which should be declining) and may therefore underestimate the contribution of the metaverse to GDP. They predict that VR and AR technologies surrounding the metaverse will overtake mobile phones as the primary computing platform within twelve years. We would add that technological development cannot be predicted so far ahead because who knows what will reach the public by then.

Here’s the joke. The Deloitte study (which seems to be out of touch with reality, as it doesn’t seem to focus on artificial intelligence…) says that the metaverse can be helpful for the economy, except that Meta paid for the study. And because of that, we can’t take what they discuss seriously. Congratulations, Meta; we hope the money wasted on the study was worth it! (Hint: it wasn’t worth it. Thanks for the laughs, though.)

Source: PCGamer