Speakers hail digital trinity of AI, metaverse and Web 3

Shanghai will accelerate development of the metaverse, a strategic industry boosting innovation and the digital economy, with "new track breakthroughs" on immersing technologies and Web 3.0, the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization said.

Various technologies are developing in integrated ways, covering generative artificial intelligence, spiral computing, intelligent coding, Web 3.0 and brain-computer interface as "new tracks," Ge Dongbo, the commission's chief engineer, told a forum at the Global Developer Conference (GDC) 2024, a city-level AI developer event held at the weekend.

Credit: zhu shenshen / SHINE

Spiral computing is a new kind of immersing technology, used in Apple's latest Vision Pro, which is expected to debut soon in China. It allows users to naturally use bodies in the spaces we inhabit, bringing more possibilities and heavyweight companies for the metaverse, experts told the forum.

Shanghai is the first city nationwide to draft a long-term blueprint for the development of metaverse applications, which connect the virtual and real worlds with advanced tech. The city announced previously to boost the metaverse industry with an expected output of 350 billion yuan (US$48.6 billion) in 2025.

It's a "Digital Trinity" for artificial intelligence, metaverse and Web 3.0, which are three engines that drive digital industrialization. Each field's development will boost the whole trinity and digital world, said Yuan Yu, initiator and chairman of an IEEE-ISTO MASA (Metaverse Acceleration and Sustainable Development Association).

For example, generative AI helps people generate and create the metaverse world easily while blockchain, a key Web 3.0 technology, helps protect digital assets in the metaverse world, Yuan told the GAIDC forum.

Meanwhile, blockchain helps people build a world with trustworthy and reliable artificial intelligence, experts said.