The morning news on November 4, Beijing time,Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview on Wednesday that the technology industry needs to cooperate with regulators, take the concerns of government departments and the public seriously, and said that the meta-universe concept should avoid hype.Smith said: “Technology will need to focus on some specific ideas and even make compromises. This way we can cooperate with each other to build a common platform and better protect users than the entire Internet in the past period of time.”
Microsoft follows up with Meta Universe, with a market value of over US$2.5 trillion
While attending the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, he said that he was not sure whether the technology industry had begun to work hard to solve these problems, but this is something that the technology industry will definitely need to do in the next 10 years.
Smith warned that technology companies should not just verbally support the measures taken by the regulatory agencies, but actually adopt an attitude of resistance. “Government departments will see this, and it will be detrimental to the entire industry. We need to be more aware of the reality.”
Apple recently launched an action to oppose a clause in the European Union’s “Digital Market Act.” The clause requires Apple to allow users to install software from outside the App Store. Smith did not specifically mention this action by Apple this time.
Last week, Facebook announced that the company changed its name to Meta. The day before, Microsoft also announced projects related to Metaverse in its blog. The meta universe is a concept that merges the digital world with the real world. Smith said this time that the hype surrounding the meta universe should be prevented.
“Everyone is talking about the meta-universe, as if we are entering a whole new world.” Smith said, “It’s not like going to heaven after death. We will all live in the real world, with others.” He called for more cooperation and interoperability in the development of Metaverse.
Facebook already has nearly 3 billion users, but its business practices have been strongly criticized in the past few years. Under such circumstances, the company changed its name to Meta to focus on the development of “Meta Universe.” Metaverse provides a shared virtual environment and is considered the future form of the mobile Internet.
Smith said: “I think Metaverse will be very large and very important. We must ensure Metaverse’s privacy protection and digital security capabilities, and prevent false information and public opinion manipulation. There are many things that need to be clarified.”
In the past many years, people have repeatedly shown a strong interest in new technological visions. Smith pointed out that it is important not to let the hype obscure longer-term technology trends.
Early supporters of Meta Universe also criticized Facebook, believing that the company had misappropriated a concept that was not its own to upgrade its brand in order to divert criticism from the outside world. Smith said that large technology companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Apple may all develop their own versions of Metaverse. “Everyone will participate.”