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A new video by Inspired by Iceland pushes back against experiencing life through the “metaverse,” as described by Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s rebranding to Meta on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Online dating apps, a crypto exchange and a professional wrestling brand are among the many companies that tried to weave their disparate and seemingly unrelated businesses into the metaverse discussion this quarter.

The concept was on the top of analysts’ minds after Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta last month in preparation for “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it,” as defined by Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg is betting the metaverse, a computer-generated world, is where people will work, play and socialize using the company’s virtual reality headsets.

But executives around the world have lots of differing opinions on what the metaverse is and when we can expect it. Some view the metaverse as something that already exists, such as worlds created by Roblox. Others see it as a vague futuristic concept.

When questioned on their plans for the metaverse after earnings this week, the executive’s answers were everything. And nothing. Most didn’t shy away from brainstorming forward-thinking business opportunities that could boost stock values. It’s unclear whether or not they’ll actually materialize — or if the ideas even make sense.

“All I can do is kind of sit back and watch it in amazement,” Neal Stephenson, who popularized the term in his 1992 book “Snow Crash,” told CNBC in a recent interview.

Here’s what we “learned.”

It’s the human co-experience

Roblox CEO David Baszucki: “It’s been called the metaverse today. We’ve called it human co-experience,” Baszucki defines the metaverse as a place where technology combines high-fidelity communication with a new way to tell stories, borrowing from mobile gaming and the entertainment industry.

“This new category of the metaverse or co-experience is predicated on eight fundamentals,” said Baszucki: identity, social, immersive, low friction, variety, anywhere, economy, and civility.

It’s already here

Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper: “I think within these large scale metaverses, Fortnite, Roblox and others, that we will begin to see an opportunity where providing content and distribution converges. And when you begin to look at the global reach, the number of people that spend meaningful amounts of time in these new worlds, I think it provides a universe of opportunity for Warner.”

It’s not here yet

Vonage Holdings (cloud communications) CEO Rory Read: “I think it’s the next 5, 7, 10 years.”

It’s too late to get in

Bilibili (Chinese video-sharing site) CEO Rui Chen: “Metaverse is a concept, it’s not a product. And before this concept emerges, actually many of the elements associated with metaverse already existed. Whether it’s virtual reality, a tight social community or a system social system or a self-reinforcing ecosystem, it’s already existed, and there are a lot of companies already developing product on those concepts, for example, Facebook and Tencent, and actually, Bilibili is one of them.

So that’s why I think, that if someone hears the concept of metaverse and decided to get into this business probably would be a little bit too late. That is because those elements such as social system, self-reinforcing ecosystem, all of which cannot be done in a couple of months or even in years.”

It’s vague

Tencent President Chi Ping Lau: “On metaverse, I think this is actually sort of a very exciting, but a little bit vague concept.”

Dolby Laboratories CEO Kevin Yeaman: “I think the metaverse, I guess, can take many forms, but ultimately it is an audiovisual experience.”

Whatever it is, NetEase will be a ‘fast runner’

Chinese game maker NetEase Head of Investor Relations Margaret Shi: “The metaverse is indeed the new buzzword everywhere today. But then, on the other hand, I think nobody has actually had firsthand experience in what it is. But at NetEase, we are technologically ready. We know how to accumulate the relevant know-how, the relevant skillsets when that day comes. So, I think when that day eventually comes, we’d probably be one of the fastest runners in the metaverse space.”

It has something to do with crypto

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong: “I think with the tens of millions of Americans out there that are now using this asset class for all kinds of things, not just financial services and unique payments and things like that, but also art and new forms of governance and identity and the Metaverse. And it’s just so exciting that the millions of young people, the talented young people all over the U.S. are coming into this field.”

It’s the digitized Game of Life

Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro‘s Wizards of the Coast: “The first step to be participating in the metaverse, you have to have digital games. I think the metaverse is shorthand for, hey, entertainment is digitizing and entertainment is the Game of Life.”

It’s…something where Bumble will be

Bumble (dating company) president Tariq M. Shaukat: “On the metaverse piece, we’re really taking a Web3 lens on this in particular, meaning we are… I’m sure somebody will build a more virtual experience and we will happily engage and be there when they do that with avatars, etc. But what we really think is really interesting in the near term is the application of blockchain and crypto in general to the experience that our communities have. Fundamentally, we are not just an ecosystem, but we are a community of people. That is true on Bumble and Badoo, but it is particularly true as we think about the kind of reimagine Bumble BFF.”

“And the opportunities to really engage our members and really think of them as members who are participants in this community is really, we think, really just super exciting. And so we’re continuing to experiment. We’ve got a couple of tests that we’re very excited about that we will be rolling out in the upcoming months around this, but we think that’s the first toehold. This is something that is going to evolve. We want to make sure we’re setting the technical and engineering foundation for whatever emerges in the metaverse and in the Web3 world.”

It will have news and sports

Ryan Steelberg, Veritone (AI software) co-founder: “Just one simple example is, imagine now just one of our big media partners like ESPN or CBS News, having all of their content, in effect, ready for seamless integration with the metaverse, right, where that content being on offline throughout a more traditional means of distribution like OTT or linear television.”

It will run on Qualcomm chips

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: “If you were going to spend time in the metaverse, Snapdragon is going to be your ticket to the metaverse.” (Facebook’s Oculus headsets currently run on Qualcomm chips.)

It’s going to be a lot bigger than Facebook (Meta)

Veritone CEO Chad Steelberg: “I think the metaverse, by definition, is a lot bigger than the new Meta company aka Facebook. By definition, it’s a multiverse, that’s going to be moving content and information both into the digital realm, and then, obviously, the digital realm interfacing back with us in our physical selves.”

Unity senior vice president Marc Whitten: “Whatever the word metaverse means, it’s going to be built by millions of content creators, and we’re on a mission to give them the easy-to-use and high-performance tools that will bring their visions to life.”

Roblox Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein: “At Roblox, we want to connect more than 1 billion people in the metaverse.”

It will have ads

Roblox Chief Business Officer Craig Donato: “We expect ad agencies to have the capability to build metaverse experiences.”

Disney will have one

Disney CEO Bob Chapek: “Suffice it to say our efforts to date are merely a prologue to a time when we’ll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse.”

It will involve people playing the piano

Match Group (dating companies) CEO Sharmistha Dubey:There is, for instance, a piano bar where people’s digital selves are gathering around, but they’re actually playing their pianos at home and jamming with others. You can overhear a conversation, join conversations, you can tap into the digital avatars to see more of their profiles, and you have basically a richer set of signals to help connect with someone. It is metaverse experiences coming to life in a way that is transformative to how people meet and get to know each other on a dating or social discovery platform and is much more akin to how people interact in the real world.”

It will be primarily made by artists

Unity CEO John Riccitiello, on Unity’s play for the metaverse through its acquisition of Weta Digital: “That’s going to really help us extract and help build the metaverse around the notion the world’s a better place with more creators in it. And now the many millions of creators in the world that think of themselves as artists, they’re welcomed on our platform and we got something that’s going to delight them. So, this really puts under our platform something that is, at least from an artist perspective, truly magic and they’re the largest tappable audience we have in our universe.”

It’s robust

Question from Laura Martin, analyst, Needham: “Okay, great. And then my other one is you guys have mentioned NFTs a couple times. So is that – could you size that for us and sort of more generally how do you feel about this, the role, the metaverse and going into the digital online world, and can you sort of think that NFTs are going to be – is meta going to be actually a bigger deal, like leaving to live, you guys really work in the live world, physical world, but how do you feel about the metaverse? And within that context, how big do you think NFTs could be as a part of the new metaverse?”

World Wrestling Entertainment Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan: “We think it’s robust now. We think it’s going to continue to evolve and become perhaps even more robust, and we think it’s here to stay.”

Martin: “Okay. Thanks.”

WATCH: Metaverse similar to rise of internet, Matthew Ball says

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies sexual abuse allegations made by his sister in lawsuit

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies sexual abuse allegations made by his sister in lawsuit

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visits “Making Money With Charles Payne” at Fox Business Network Studios in New York on Dec. 4, 2024.

Mike Coppola | Getty Images

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s sister, Ann Altman, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that her brother sexually abused her regularly between the years of 1997 and 2006.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse took place at the family’s home in Clayton, Missouri, and began when Ann, who goes by Annie, was three and Sam was 12. The filing claims that the abusive activities took place “several times per week,” beginning with oral sex and later involving penetration.

The lawsuit claims that “as a direct and proximate result of the foregoing acts of sexual assault,” the plaintiff has experienced “severe emotional distress, mental anguish, and depression, which is expected to continue into the future.”

The younger Altman has publicly made similar sexual assault allegations against her brother in the past on platforms like X, but this is the first time she’s taken him to court. She’s being represented by Ryan Mahoney, whose Illinois-based firm specializes in matters including sexual assault and harassment.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000.

In a joint statement on X with his mother, Connie, and his brothers Jack and Max, Sam Altman denied the allegations.

“Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam,” the statement said. “We’ve chosen not to respond publicly, out of respect for her privacy and our own. However, she has now taken legal action against Sam, and we feel we have no choice but to address this.”

Their response says “all of these claims are utterly untrue,” adding that “this situation causes immense pain to our entire family.” They said that Ann Altman faces “mental health challenges” and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help.”

Sam Altman has gained international prominence since OpenAI’s debut of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Backed by Microsoft, the company was most recently valued at $157 billion, with funding coming from Thrive Capital, chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and others.

Altman was briefly ousted from the CEO role by OpenAI’s board in November 2023, but was quickly reinstated due to pressure from investors and employees.

This isn’t the only lawsuit the tech exec faces.

In March, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sued OpenAI and co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. Musk, who now runs a competing AI startup, xAI, was a co-founder of OpenAI when it began as a nonprofit in 2015. Musk left the board in 2018 and has publicly criticized OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original mission.

Musk is suing to keep OpenAI from turning into a for-profit company. In June, Musk withdrew the original complaint filed in a San Francisco state court and later refiled in federal court. 

Last month, OpenAI clapped back against Musk, claiming in a blog post that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit” to serve as the company’s proposed new structure.

WATCH: OpenAI unveils for-profit plans

OpenAI unveils for-profit plans

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Meta employees criticize Zuckerberg decisions to end fact-checking, add Dana White to board

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Meta employees criticize Zuckerberg decisions to end fact-checking, add Dana White to board

This photo illustration created on January 7, 2025, in Washington, DC, shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and an image of the Meta logo. 

Drew Angerer | Afp | Getty Images

Meta employees took to their internal forum on Tuesday, criticizing the company’s decision to end third-party fact-checking on its services two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Company employees voiced their concern after Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer and former White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, announced the content policy changes on Workplace, the in-house communications tool. 

“We’re optimistic that these changes help us return to that fundamental commitment to free expression,” Kaplan wrote in the post, which was reviewed by CNBC. 

The content policy announcement follows a string of decisions that appear targeted to appease the incoming administration. On Monday, Meta added new members to its board, including UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump, and the company confirmed last month that it was contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

Among the latest changes, Kaplan announced that Meta will scrap its fact-checking program and shift to a user-generated system like X’s Community Notes. Kaplan, who took over his new role last week, also said that Meta will lift restrictions on certain topics and focus its enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations while giving users “a more personalized approach to political content.”

One worker wrote they were “extremely concerned” about the decision, saying it appears Meta is “sending a bigger, stronger message to people that facts no longer matter, and conflating that with a victory for free speech.”

Another employee commented that by “simply absolving ourselves from the duty to at least try to create a safe and respective platform is a really sad direction to take.” Other comments expressed concern about the impact the policy change could have on the discourse around topics like immigration, gender identity and gender, which, according to one employee, could result in an “influx of racist and transphobic content.”

A separate employee said they were scared that “we’re entering into really dangerous territory by paving the way for the further spread of misinformation.”

The changes weren’t universally criticized, as some Meta workers congratulated the company’s decision to end third-party fact checking. One wrote that X’s Community Notes feature has “proven to be a much better representation of the ground truth.” 

Another employee commented that the company should “provide an accounting of the worst outcomes of the early years” that necessitated the creation of a third-party fact-checking program and whether the new policies would prevent the same type of fall out from happening again.

As part of the company’s massive layoffs in 2023, Meta also scrapped an internal fact-checking project, CNBC reported. That project would have let third-party fact checkers like the Associated Press and Reuters, in addition to credible experts, comment on flagged articles in order to verify the content.

Although Meta announced the end of its fact-checking program on Tuesday, the company had already been pulling it back. In September, a spokesperson for the AP told CNBC that the news agency’s “fact-checking agreement with Meta ended back in January” 2024. 

Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship gestures as he speaks during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York, U.S., Oct. 27, 2024.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

After the announcement of White’s addition to the board on Monday, employees also posted criticism, questions and jokes on Workplace, according to posts reviewed by CNBC.

White, who has led UFC since 2001, became embroiled in controversy in 2023 after a video published by TMZ showed him slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party in Mexico. White issued a public apology, and his wife, Anne White, issued a statement to TMZ, calling it an isolated incident.

Commenters on Workplace made jokes asking whether performance reviews would now involve mixed martial arts style fights.

In addition to White, John Elkann, the CEO of Italian auto holding company Exor, was named to Meta’s board.

Some employees asked what value autos and entertainment executives could bring to Meta, and whether White’s addition reflects the company’s values. One post suggested the new board appointments would help with political alliances that could be valuable but could also change the company culture in unintended or unwanted ways.

Comments in Workplace alluding to White’s personal history were flagged and removed from the discussion, according to posts from the internal app read by CNBC.

An employee who said he was with Meta’s Internal Community Relations team, posted a reminder to Workplace about the company’s “community engagement expectations” policy, or CEE, for using the platform.

“Multiple comments have been flagged by the community for review,” the employee posted. “It’s important that we maintain a respectful work environment where people can do their best work.” 

The internal community relations team member added that “insulting, criticizing, or antagonizing our colleagues or Board members is not aligned with the CEE.”

Several workers responded to that note saying that even respectful posts, if critical, had been removed, amounting to a corporate form of censorship.

One worker said that because critical comments were being removed, the person wanted to voice support for “women and all voices.”

Meta declined to comment.

— CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

WATCH: Meta adds Dana White, John Elkann, and Charlie Songhurst to board of directors.

Meta adds Dana White, John Elkann, and Charlie Songhurst to board of directors

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Bitcoin drops below $98,000 as Treasury yields pressure risk assets

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Bitcoin drops below ,000 as Treasury yields pressure risk assets

Nicolas Economou | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Bitcoin slumped on Tuesday as a spike in Treasury yields weighed on risk assets broadly.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last lower by 4.8% at $97,183.80, according to Coin Metrics. The broader market of cryptocurrencies, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, dropped more than 5%.

Crypto stocks Coinbase and MicroStrategy fell more than 7% and 9%, respectively. Bitcoin miners Mara Holdings and Core Scientific were down about 5% each.

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Bitcoin drops below $98,000

The moves followed a sudden increase in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield after data released by the Institute for Supply Management reflected faster-than-expected growth in the U.S. services sector in December, adding to concerns about stickier inflation. Rising yields tend to pressure growth oriented risk assets.

Bitcoin traded above $102,000 on Monday and is widely expected to about double this year from that level. Investors are hopeful that clearer regulation will support digital asset prices and in turn benefit stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood.

However, uncertainty about the path of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts could put bumps in the road for crypto prices. In December, the central bank signaled that although it was cutting rates a third time, it may do fewer rate cuts in 2025 than investors had anticipated. Historically, rate cuts have had a positive effect on bitcoin price while hikes have had a negative impact.

Bitcoin is up more than 3% since the start of the year. It posted a 120% gain for 2024.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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