How AI Replaced the Metaverse as Zuckerberg’s Top Priority

The only problem for Zuckerberg in Idaho was that he had little idea what breakthrough Pichai was talking about, according to people familiar with the meeting. Zuckerberg had enthusiastically kick-started Facebook’s artificial intelligence research group in 2013, hiring Yann LeCun, a sometimes referred to as one of the godfathers of AI, to run it. But since then he hadn’t been closely involved in its operations. Instead, Zuckerberg cast about for other big ideas to futureproof his company, including direct messaging, video streaming and crypto, before falling for the idea of the metaverse, a digital world he thought could revolutionize the way people interacted online. Zuckerberg committed Facebook to this vision so completely that he changed the company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc. in 2021.