Race to the metaverse: The fight to shape the future of the internet

Published

2 years ago

November 18, 2022

admin

Last week, I was invited to get my hair done in the metaverse.

In what was the strangest PR email I’d received for some time, a leading haircare manufacturer offered up a seat in a virtual salon, where my avatar would get a luxury treatment the real me could only dream of.

Blurring the lines between the physical and the digital, the idea is that this will become a way for people to “test run” new looks on themselves before perhaps choosing to go ahead with it. While I don’t foresee myself ever asking a hairdresser for anything more extravagant than a two round the back and sides and a bit off the top, thanks, the metaverse offers a risk-free opportunity to experiment.

And in this instance, all without ever strapping on a bulky headset.

Like me, there’s a good chance that when you think metaverse, the first thing you associate with it is virtual or augmented reality. But in a week when Mark Zuckerberg’s relentless bid to put his stamp on the concept was brought into stark relief by thousands of job cuts at Meta, this bizarre invitation was a timely reminder that it’s much more than that.

Meta’s place in the metaverse

When Zuckerberg talks about the metaverse, he’s predominately talking about Horizon, which is the virtual world his company has created to host various experiences – from chatting with friends, to collaborating with work colleagues – while you wear a Meta Quest headset. Since the release last month of its $1,500 “Pro” headset, you’ll likely have seen Meta adverts and billboards pitching the metaverse as the perfect home for those exact kinds of experiences.

And there are certainly believers.

Nicky Danino, principal lecturer in computer science at the University of Central Lancashire, counts herself as one of those already on board, saying the metaverse offers “amazing opportunities and possibilities” in educational and training settings in particular. The university already uses virtual spaces to place students inside situations and environments they would never normally be able to, while institutions like the RAF have showcased how augmented reality can enhance the work of their fighter jet maintenance crews.

But just like rebranding Facebook as Internet Inc wouldn’t indicate ownership of the web at large, don’t let Zuckerberg renaming it Meta make you think his vision is all there is when it comes to the metaverse. What Meta is building should really be seen as a platform within the metaverse, although admittedly one with an astonishingly large amount of money (tens of billions of dollars already) being thrown at it.

But there are plenty of others making moves into the space – and you’ve probably heard of quite a few of them.

For example, there’s Fortnite from Epic Games. No longer is it purely a space for 100 players to parachute on to an island and kill one another, it also allows them to create their own games and even attend concerts – among those who’ve performed are real megastars like Ariana Grande and Travis Scott, taking to the stage in a fever dream of brand synergy which sees millions of fans able to appear as anyone from Princess Leia to Neymar.

Speaking of brands, that’s where you’ll find some of the metaverse’s greatest advocates. Last December, sportswear giant Nike bought a company called RTFKT, which was launched to create digital goods like virtual clothes, collectibles, and NFTs. Its first post-acquisition product were the Nike Cryptokicks, a pair of digital trainers designed to be customised and shown off online.

And then there are virtual spaces like Decentraland, one of the biggest slices of the metaverse pie thus far, which is probably the closest you get right now to living an entirely separate life to your real one. As Sky News found out earlier this year, people in Decentraland are spending thousands of pounds on plots of land to call their own.

It is in some ways the ultimate utopian vision of a decentralised metaverse, where people own what’s theirs and can monetise it all themselves, taking it with them wherever they go – no strings or corporate overlords attached. It’s a vision that wouldn’t allow any one company – not even one named after the metaverse itself – to hold sway over the entire court.

Indeed, for Tom Ffiske of Immersive Wire, the idea of “interoperability” between metaverse platforms is absolutely key to its viability – there can be no one metaverse to rule them all.

‘The race for the future of the internet’

Now, all of this probably sounds absolutely bonkers to a lot of people born before the turn of the millennium. What makes Horizon different to Second Life (an online virtual chatroom inhabited by avatars) from 20 years ago? Why would Ariana Grande want to perform inside a video game? You may be perplexed as to why people are excited enough to queue for trainers in real life, let alone buy pairs they can’t even put on their actual feet.

You might be right to think it’s utterly mad – the truth is we just do not know yet. The only thing that’s certain is that these possibly brilliant, possibly baffling ideas are here to stay.

For more on science and technology, explore the future with Sky News at Big Ideas Live 2022.
Find out more and book tickets here

“The race for the metaverse is about the race for the future of the internet,” says Professor Yu Xiong, the director of Surrey Academy for Blockchain and Metaverse Applications at the University of Surrey.

“The areas of virtual/augmented reality, artificial intelligence and blockchain all require a skill-maturing process which takes significant time. Currently, the metaverse is facing problems with battery constraints, slow internet connections and the demise of the unstable blockchain.

“However, In 10 years’ time, once we have made battery breakthroughs, are using 6G for data transmission, and blockchain has matured, I have absolutely no doubt that the metaverse will be the future. As a result, these companies need to understand that their billion-dollar investments will have little-to-no returns until such time.”

That last comment is a pointed barb towards Meta, which has seen its metaverse strategy eviscerated by financial analysts as it tries to brute force its way to the front of what stands to be a long-term sea change in how we engage with the internet.

Gen Z are key to all this

Even advocates of the metaverse agree that when it comes to Zuckerberg’s go big or go home approach, it’s an extremely risky case of trying to run before it can walk. He appeared to think of the pandemic as an accelerator – a time-skip that would see us embrace a decade’s worth of technological change in the blink of an eye, and expanded Meta’s ambitions accordingly. Our willingness to return to pre-COVID comforts caught him by surprise.

“They’ve piled in more quickly and spent more than any other metaverse and probably not got more traction,” is the blunt assessment of Cudo founder Matt Hawkins, and yet he believes the metaverse is “the natural next stage” of a transition that’s seen younger generations grow into an increasingly digital world.

“The Gen Zs have grown purely into a digital world and quite often value digital assets more than real world assets. The idea is you can take it with you, and you can show it off to the world, so, if you spend £1,000 on a picture and put it on your bedroom wall, nobody will see it. If you buy a digital version, you can show it to the world.”

Again, this is not a particularly new phenomenon. Online games like World Of Warcraft had players showing off their exotic pets and epic armour to one another as long ago as 2004. One of Fortnite’s trump cards is that people love being able to dress up as Star Wars characters, Marvel superheroes and global sports stars, and then hang out with their friends to compare looks.

The promise of the metaverse is to blur the lines between our digital and real lives, to the point where the former may be the one we take more pride in. The same generation which fears never having enough money to get on the housing ladder may decide the money’s better spent on a digital home to call their own.

After all, £5,000 will go a darn bit further on Decentraland’s housing market than it will on Rightmove (although, somewhat ironically, Spitfire Homes just became the first UK homebuilder to create a show home in the metaverse).

John Needham is the president of esports at gaming giant Riot Games, and before that oversaw a Microsoft augmented reality project called Hololens, which blends the meta and physical worlds via a headset which overlays digital effects and items into a real space.

“Millennials and Gen Z are on their phones all day, their presence is defined by their digital presence,” he said.

“Gaming has been scratching at what [the metaverse] will look like for a long time, with MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) with games like The Sims. I think doing that, at a human race scale, is going to require much better technology than we have now.

“But you see all the signs that your digital persona is becoming more and more important, it will evolve into being the primary important thing. I don’t know if it’s this generation or next generation, but I think it’s inevitable.”

Whether it be education, industry, or just dancing with friends at an online gig, it’s clear that increasingly we’re dipping our collective toe into the possibilities that the metaverse might offer.

For Cudo’s Matt Hawkins, all that’s missing is a eureka moment. Like access to information and ecommerce drove people towards the internet, and connections drove us to social media, what takes us en masse to the metaverse?

Zuckerberg seems determined to make it him, and appears ready to make or break Meta to find out.

World

Long-range drone strikes weakening Russia’s combat ability, senior Ukrainian commander says

Published

28 mins ago

March 3, 2025

admin

Long-range drone strikes weakening Russia's combat ability, senior Ukrainian commander says

Russia is finding it “significantly” harder to conduct combat operations against Ukraine because of a rise in Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian weapons supplies, ammunition depots and fuel refineries, a senior commander has said.

Brigadier General Yuriy Shchygol signalled these attacks would grow, revealing that his country plans to more than quadruple the production rate of deep strike drones – with a range of hundreds of miles – to more than 2,000 aircraft a month.

Ukraine has been intensifying the tempo of its long-range drone strikes against targets inside Russia and Russian-occupied territory since late December – demonstrating what defence sources say is a world-leading capability that the Kremlin is struggling to counter.

The mission is an example of how Kyiv remains focused on combatting Moscow’s invasion even as world attention fixates on the fallout from a row between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as efforts by Europe to prepare a plan for peace.

Live updates: Ukraine war latest

The comments by Brigadier Shchygol, who coordinates long-range drone strikes for Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, offer a rare insight into the impact of the covert mission, which is also carried out by other branches of the Ukrainian military and security services.

“Russia is finding it increasingly difficult to conceal the extent of the damage,” the commander told Sky News in an interview at an undisclosed location in Kyiv.

“Headquarters have been hit, command structures weakened, and panic is spreading among their officers. Compared to a year ago, conducting full-scale combat operations has become significantly more challenging for [the Russians].”

Sky News analysis of long-range drone strikes last month found that since December, there had been a ramping up of attacks against oil refineries in Russia that are used to fuel Russian tanks, jets and warships.

The analysis took in strikes officially confirmed by the Ukrainian armed forces. Brigadier Shchygol said “far more” drone attacks by Ukraine are not publicly confirmed.

In a sign of the importance placed on long-range drones, he said Kyiv’s ability to manufacture this weapon has already jumped 100-fold since late 2022 to more than 500 per month.

While the officer would not say how many of these drones are then deployed on operations, he noted: “Nothing is just sitting in storage unused.”

He said recent operations had targeted several storage sites for Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed one-way attack drones – used by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian military and civilian targets.

More than 3,000 Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, according to the officer, who said: “As a result, their deployment of these drones has significantly decreased.”

Top secret drone mission

Sky News was given rare access to view a drone mission last week at a top-secret area.

As night fell, soldiers dressed in black – all members of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, an elite branch of the armed forces – prepared a line of about 10 drones.

Each aircraft looked like a giant, grey metal mosquito.

The model is called “Lutti”, which is Ukrainian for “Fury”.

One by one, the drones burst into life, a propeller on the back whirring, pushing the aircraft forward at ever greater speed until it took off into the darkness.

We were told their target was an ammunition depot inside Russia.

“Vector”, the commander on the ground, said his drones have a success rate of 70 to 80%.

He said Ukraine’s deep strike operations are “very important”.

“We change the war with these drones,” Vector said, speaking with a balaclava pulled up to his eyes to protect his identity.

“We can show [Russia] that the war can come in their houses, in their towns, cities.”

Russia’s sheer size makes it vulnerable

Using drones to strike targets hundreds of miles inside Russia is a complex challenge.

But the sheer size of their enemy’s country works in Ukraine’s favour. The Russian military has weapons sites, ammunition storage areas, oil refineries and military headquarters dotted across its territory and lacks the air defences to be able to protect them all.

“We are reaching those targets. The slowing pace of their offensives – and in some places, even Ukrainian counter-offensives reclaiming territory – proves that our strikes are effective and growing more so,” Brigadier Shchygol said.

A huge planning and reconnaissance effort underpins Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes.

It identifies targets and coordinates attacks between the different teams.

Varying volumes of drones are required for each mission – with some of the most complex strikes needing 100 unmanned aircraft.

From farm aircraft to fighter drone

The brigadier was speaking in a large room inside a disused building in Kyiv where five examples of different Ukrainian long-range drones were on display.

They tell the story of the evolution of vital battlefield technology that began life on a farm.

The earliest form of the long-range drone looks like an ordinary light aircraft, with rectangular wings and two propellers. It is a lot smaller than a manned plane but much larger than a regular drone – probably about the length of a car, with a similar wingspan.

This model, fitted with a camera and a large fuel tank to fly for long periods, had been used for surveillance for agricultural purposes.

It was adapted after Russia’s full-scale invasion to conduct reconnaissance and even bombing missions.

The idea was then modified further to develop similar-sized drones that look more like fighter jets, with pointed noses and triangular wings. These were designed to hold explosives in the main body of the plane.

Some of the drones are remotely piloted, others work via autopilot.

Russia’s war has forced Ukraine to use technology and innovation to fight back against its far more powerful foe.

It has accelerated the use of autonomous machines in an irreversible transformation of the warzone that everyone is watching and learning from.

Brigadier Shchygol said: “Right now, Ukraine’s battlefield experience is essentially a manual for the world.”

World

Who’s in, who’s out? The ‘coalition of the willing’ that could secure peace in Ukraine

Published

3 hours ago

March 3, 2025

admin

Who's in, who's out? The 'coalition of the willing' that could secure peace in Ukraine

A “coalition of the willing” could provide boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

The phrase was a central theme of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech after European leaders gathered in London for crucial talks about Ukraine’s future.

Led by the UK and France, the initiative could see troops from a number of European and NATO countries deployed to Ukraine as peacekeepers in order to deter Vladimir Putin from rearming and attacking again in the future.

Follow latest: Russia not ready to negotiate, Zelenskyy says

Sir Keir said Europe “must do the heavy lifting” on defence and indicated several countries had expressed interest in being part of the coalition.

So who’s in, who’s out – and what’s behind these latest buzzwords?

What is a coalition of the willing?

The prime minister has said the UK, France and Ukraine will work together on a peace deal that could be presented to the US.

The countries committed to working together on this deal would form a “coalition of the willing”.

Countries in the coalition could end up sending soldiers to act as peacekeepers in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

Military analyst Michael Clarke said: “It has to be a coalition of the willing because you have at least two NATO members – Slovakia and Hungary – who are vetoing anything that Putin would not like… it’s the same with the EU.”

This approach would allow NATO members to act in a group but not under the NATO umbrella, avoiding vetoes from member states who don’t approve or don’t wish to be involved.

Sir Keir’s choice of the term “coalition of the willing” is also interesting. It’s perhaps intended to remind an American audience of a previous use of the same phrase: when the UK, Poland and other countries joined the US invasion of Iraq.

Russia has so far rejected the idea of any NATO or European peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Who’s in?

Sir Keir is being “quite coy about who the willing are”, Prof Clarke said.

The initiative is being led by the UK and France, so it seems a safe bet that both countries would be involved in the coalition.

Both have powerful militaries and the two nations are also the only countries in Europe with nuclear weapons.

“The important thing is that Britain and France are going to lead it because they are the two most important military powers in Europe,” Prof Clarke told Sky News.

It is notable that France’s President Emmanuel Macron originally raised the possibility of French troops in Ukraine last year, when he refused to rule it out.

The Baltic states – Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – are also likely to be involved, along with Finland, Prof Clarke says. All four countries are in NATO and share borders with Russia.

Italy could be involved too, Prof Clarke said, though Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has clashed with Mr Macron over the idea last week.

Not in Europe but a NATO member, Canada seems another potential contributor to the coalition of the willing.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, when asked about a potential deployment of troops as part of a peacekeeping force, said yesterday: “Canada has looked at the ways it can best help and as I’ve said a few days ago, everything’s on the table.”

Who’s out?

Prof Clarke said Poland, Spain and Germany are not expected to send troops as peacekeepers, for different reasons.

Poland has one of the strongest militaries in Europe and aims to spend 4.7% of its GDP on defence this year, well above the NATO target.

But it also has a long border with Ukraine and Belarus and is concerned about its own security.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk last month said: “We do not plan to send Polish soldiers to the territory of Ukraine.”

“We will… give logistical and political support to the countries that will possibly want to provide such guarantees in the future, such physical guarantees.”

Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said last month that it was “too early at the moment to talk about deploying troops in Ukraine”, in remarks quoted by AFP.

He added: “There is no peace at the moment, and the effort has to be to achieve it as soon as possible.”

Spain’s government has faced a number of crises at home and spends around 1.28% of GDP on defence, well below the NATO 2% target.

As the biggest economy in Europe, Germany is a crucial part of any united response to the Ukraine war.

But a new government has not yet been formed after last month’s elections.

Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz has previously ruled out sending German troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers.

While his government has provided substantial support to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, he has been seen by some as hesitant – for example resisting calls to send the vaunted Taurus missiles to Kyiv.

Friedrich Merz, who is expected to replace him as chancellor once the new government is in place, has taken a harder line, including on pledging Taurus missiles, so it remains to be seen if his attitude on deploying troops will also deviate from his predecessor.

‘Coalition of the willing’ is a curious term to revive

Deborah Haynes

Security and Defence Editor

@haynesdeborah

The use of the term “coalition of the willing” to describe the nations that agree to support an international force to help protect any ceasefire deal in Ukraine is interesting and notable.

It could perhaps be an attempt by Sir Keir Starmer to appeal to an American audience as this was the phrase the United States used for its “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq more than two decades ago.

That intervention ended in disaster, triggering a bloody insurgency and locking the US and its allies into a costly war, despite the successful toppling of Saddam Hussein.

But reviving the words “coalition of the willing” will – if nothing else – remind Washington that London was its biggest and strongest backer when it turned to allies to back its 2003 invasion.

What about America?

The elephant in the room is the biggest contributor to NATO: the US.

For example, of the 5,015 fighter and fighter ground-attack aircraft in NATO, 2,951 of them are from the US, and a further 1,108 are US-made, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank.

And America’s military is not just the largest in the world, but its ability to support troops in the field in terms of logistics is very hard to replace.

The coalition of the willing initiative seems designed to show President Donald Trump that Europe is serious about shouldering the defence burden and taking on more responsibility for the defence of Ukraine.

It should be pointed out that while the US is the single biggest donor to Kyiv, Europe as a whole has pledged more, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy thinktank.

The hope seems to be that the coalition of the willing initiative would persuade the US as the world’s most powerful military to pledge support as a backstop, to underwrite the peace deal.

It’s unclear so far what Washington’s response will be, particularly after the fiery recent meeting between Mr Trump, vice president JD Vance and Mr Zelenskyy.

World

Car drives into crowd in centre of German city of Mannheim, as public told to avoid the area

Published

6 hours ago

March 3, 2025

admin

Car drives into crowd in centre of German city of Mannheim, as public told to avoid the area

At least one person has died after a car was driven into a group of pedestrians in the western German city of Mannheim – with a large police operation under way.

Several people have been “seriously injured” after the black vehicle rammed into crowds, according to German police, with a witness telling Reuters they saw people lying on the ground and two being resuscitated.

People seen ‘lying on ground’; Germany latest

A suspect has been taken into custody, police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm added, warning people who live nearby to stay inside their homes.

Mr Wilhelm said that the “incident” unfolded on Monday at around 12.15pm local time in a pedestrianised part of Mannheim’s Paradeplatz area.

“We can confirm that one perpetrator was arrested,” he said. “We can’t yet give information on whether there were further perpetrators.”

A spokesman for the German interior ministry said: “The focus is now on saving lives, treating the injured and the initial investigations by the authorities in Mannheim.”

Armed police and forensic investigators were seen examining a black vehicle with smashed windows near the city’s Rhine bridge.

Police described it as “a life-threatening deployment situation”, saying in an initial statement: “Currently, a police operation is taking place in the city center of Mannheim, in the area of Wasserturm/Plankenkopf.

“Police and rescuers are on the way. Further information is not yet available. In this context, there may be temporary traffic disruptions in the inner city.”

An alert was issued on the Katwarn smartphone app – used in major emergencies – telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city centre due to a big police deployment.

Mannheim University Hospital said it is prepared for a possible “mass casualty incident”, implementing its disaster and emergency plan, and increasing intensive care capacity, according to German news agency DPA.

A total of eight trauma teams have been made available – for both adults and children, according to the agency.

“Postponable operations that had not yet begun were immediately removed from the operation plan in order to create additional operating capacity,” the hospital said in a statement.

Crowds have been gathering in cities across Germany, including its Rhineland region, for parades to mark the carnival season.

Police were on high alert after social media accounts connected to Islamic extremist groups called for attacks on events planned in Cologne and Nuremberg.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser said she cancelled her appearance at the Cologne parade due to the events in Mannheim.

Today’s incident follows other similar ones in recent weeks, including a deadly car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg in December and another in Munich last month.

Mannheim has a population of 326,000 people and is around 50 miles south of Frankfurt.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.