Here’s how artificial intelligence can enhance the metaverse

It is widely accepted that the “metaverse” is the future of our interactivity on the web. Thanks to the significant rationalisation occurring in the decentralised finance and blockchain space, we can now talk about it as an ecosystem of commercial potential driven by creators and occupied by all of us.

We have seen metaverses before, from Sony Playstation home to SecondLife. However, something is different now. We have a decentralisation occurring – a way to change the typical Web2-centric approach to ownership on the web. This change of ownership structure means that more people have more power over what they see, what they do and what they buy online.

Understanding this power and its potential has become a hotbed of political, philosophical and technical jargon, lending itself to raised eyebrows more often than not.

What we need to do, is to understand what is necessary to lift the project “metaverse” to reach its lofty potential. So, to this end, let’s try to break down a use-case for the metaverse. It is a ‘Web3,’ multi-tenant platform allowing curated content, e-commerce, interactive gaming and social-fi. We envision it working by selling virtual land with specific tools to build content or e-commerce. This is all connected through a massive interactive space, where your avatar can engage other avatars while shopping, gaming or just hanging out.

So how can this all come together? Well, it turns out that we not only need hardware, developers and blockchain to enable this ‘Web3’ masterpieces, but we will also need artificial intelligence (AI).

Imagine going from a game to an NFT marketplace to an interactive store without curating your preferences. It would be like navigating multiple significant cities without a map. With each ‘content creator’ needing to provide services, offer payment solutions, drive e-commerce or engage with a broader social audience, various levels of AI will need to be involved.

AI will ensure a smooth operation connecting all the decentralised services to their respective nodes to work correctly. This multi-service-enabled metaverse must use transparent AI by design as financial services, and complex decisions will be based on its output. The tokenisation of these services would impossible to manage without the AI working in the background to balance supply and demand.

We don’t have to look far ahead to see how these technologies are suited for each other. Fundamentally, we need to realise that as the metaverse becomes a cross-border phenomenon, the need for compliances is imperative. AI is essential to ensure these technologies are interoperable and secure. The correct use of AI and its adoption is pivotal to maintaining the best practice and stepping into the metaverse.

Dr Eva-Marie Muller-Stuler is the partner – Data and AI at Ernst & Young and Andrew Schumer is the director – Technology Advisory at Grant Thornton

Read: How Dubai Metaverse Assembly gave us a glimpse of the future?