Identity Theft in the Metaverse takes a Frightening Turn Earlier this year a chilling academic study was published by researchers at Lancaster University and UC Berkeley. Using a sophisticated form of AI known as a GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) they created artificial human faces (i.e. photorealistic fakes) and showed these…

I was recently interviewed about the metaverse by More Perfect Union, a wonderful non-profit that fights for justice among working people. The topic we covered was how large corporations could use the metaverse to exploit consumers and manipulate public opinion. The discussion (see video below ) covered how the metaverse…

A video roadmap for regulating Metaverse Platforms Over the last 18 months, public interest in “the metaverse” has surged along with an explosion of corporate investment. Facebook alone spent over $10B in 2021 on metaverse technologies and plans to ramp up spending. Research firm, Gartner, predicts that 25% of consumers…

The concept of land ownership is so ingrained in modern culture, it’s easy to forget that the practice has only been pervasive in North America for a few hundred years. …

With so much hype about the metaverse, the public has been flooded with new phrases and acronyms from MR & XR to WEB 3 & NFTs. If you’re confused, it’s not your fault — the industry hasn’t been clear or consistent. To help clarify how these new terms relate to…

We humans make our share of bad decisions. And even when we know our decisions are hurting our own prospects for survival, like destroying the environment or propagating poverty and inequality, we seem collectively helpless to correct course. It’s like watching a car heading for a brick wall with a…

How the “next big thing” fell into a Virtual Winter for 15 years. — With so much hype around the Metaverse these days, I’m often asked what it was like to run a VR company throughout the 1990’s. At the same time, many people are surprised that any companies were working on VR back then. …

Why regulation is important and urgent. — In a popular article last month, I warned that a corporate controlled metaverse is rapidly coming our way and will be far more dangerous than social media. In response to that piece, many reached out, asking how we can avoid the problems. …

Preface: As a young researcher at Air Force Research Laboratory in the early 1990's, I developed the first interactive augmented reality system and tested it with human subjects. The users were so enthusiastic, I was convinced AR would become critical to our future. …