In the latest Metaverse news, Dubai is investing big bucks in the virtual world, the market could reach $475 billion by 2028, and ClassDojo is bringing kids to the metaverse. Tom Graham, CEO of Metaphysic, gives insight into the constantly evolving space of the metaverse. 

Opening Bell

Metaverse Monday: Dubai Invests In Metaverse, ClassDojo Brings The Virtual World To Kids

to bring in tom Graham ceo metaphysics tom what do you think of Dubai strategy? Hi guys, I think it's a smart strategy ultimately, You know, everything that we see happening in the global economy. I think you have a smaller innovation focused nations which are centrally coordinated really having to focus on the future. And I think that that's a positive move in terms of Web three and metaverse for Dubai especially if you consider all that money they're gonna be able to make from it. I'm like go for it. Yeah, I want to switch gears here Tom and ask you about this new report. So it says the global metaverse market will reach $475 billion 2028. That's up from about $47 billion 2021 analytics insight predicts the metaverse will break through many market spaces and industries in the coming years. From concerts to sports to movies, all driving revenue, growth in the virtual world, investments, collaborations and partnerships are also expected to boost growth of the metaverse market. What do you think of this prediction? Is it too ambitious or not ambitious enough for everything that's going to happen with the metaphors. I don't think it's ambitious enough. Honestly at metaphysics we see every brand in the world, every platform, every entertainment company moving their experiences into more of a metaverse kind of interactive experience. And so I think over the next 10 years we'll see a lot of the things that we do on the internet, entertainment, education, e commerce will move into this more virtual kind of space and be more metaverse economy in this definition. How long do you think go ahead? I was gonna say, I'm curious how long do you think it's gonna take for people to catch on to it? Because we know so many developers and companies are ready for it, they're chomping at the bit but how soon until the normal consumers are ready to accept it into their daily lives? I think there is an on board there, it's starting with gaming and so you'll find more experiences which are linked into lower resolution graphics and gaming applications and then as the technology develops over, I think the next 3 to 4 years will have more hyper realistic experiences where you could go to the Gucci store and try and address with your real body and your real face and see exactly what you look like in the real world. That's really for me the inflection point when things will take off when it becomes more hyper realistic. I also wanted to ask you because you mentioned it's not ambitious enough and I do somewhat agree. I feel like if I'm considering my personal experience with the metaverse and all that we're expecting here, I'm quite bullish but I do wonder if it's not ambitious enough but also we're expecting a lot of this later. You mentioned that timeline of potentially 3-4 years are you at all concerned about some of the other challenges that we're seeing when it comes to things like supply chain issues or the raw material shortage because we know that kind of fuels adoption in that it's the creation of the equipment needed to fully experience the measurers. So on the equipment side, we see that um you can do a lot even with simple screens because it's about that interactive um experience of the user rather than virtual reality. So there can be this interim phase where we do currently have enough chips and enough devices to have a certain type of experience. The research and the ai research required to make this happen is moving very fast. I think that what needs to follow is use cases and good products and they're difficult to develop. So entertainment companies need to move into this space, but it takes them a long time to do that. And so I think that's what the lag will be ultimately. Well speaking of use cases, let's move to this next story. The education tech company that surged in popularity during the pandemic is now shifting its focus to the metaverse. Class Class Dojo. The virtual learning app with more than 50 million users, is investing 100 and $25 million. And to bring in the metaverse two kids. Now, the new platform will allow students to participate in the activities that develop essential soft skills like creativity, teamwork, sportsmanship and all those types of things and a safe and secure environment. Now the company aims to have the virtual space available to at least half of its users starting next month that's so soon. So tom what do you think of this idea? Is it concerning or exciting for you that kids might be, have soon access to the metaverse? So I think that many young kids are spending a lot of time on Youtube and on the internet generally and they're getting a lot of information in an unstructured way. So I think that that focus on safety um is important in terms of Children and education in the metaverse, so that I think is a positive move to um kind of centralize and ensure that it's a safe environment. And then ultimately, I think the future of the metaverse with education is really, really interesting in that we could be going to classrooms which are focused on things we want to learn with peer groups which are on our level, in hyper real interactive environments which kind of mimic the classroom of today and have the socialization elements that kids need today rather than just the informational download. And so I think that it's a step in the right direction, there has to be a real focus on safety. Yeah, a really good point there. And Tom I also want to ask you about this because I remember at the height of a lot of the excitement around 360 video a few years ago, there were conversations about how the technology was going to be really a game changer because it allows you to put your feet into the shoes of someone and what they experience and almost experience the world from their perspective. Do you anticipate that along with safety concerns? We also begin to see a lot of regulation here, especially entering the world of younger students and education. So actually we we focus at metaphysics on creating hyper real synthetic media. So we did Deep Tom Cruise where you can't tell the difference between the Tom Cruise which is created by Ai and the Tom Cruise in real life. And so when you create things which are hyper real or you put yourself in a 360 video environment um then you're recording actual data from people's faces and who they are and their private spaces. And so I think that ultimately that kind of core biometric data and data around our private lives will have a layer of regulation where governments say cos you need to comply in certain ways to empower individuals to control data around themselves, their identity and their private spaces. So I think that that will come eventually. Alright, well we're looking forward to it all Tom Graham from physics. Thank you so much for joining us giving us that insight on everything