Meta Pushes AI Integration to Accelerate Metaverse Development

Meta Tells Its Metaverse Workers to Use AI to 'Go 5X Faster'

A Meta executive in charge of building the company's metaverse products told employees that they should be using AI to "go 5X faster" according to an internal message obtained by 404 Media. "Metaverse AI4P: Think 5X, not 5%," the message, posted by Vishal Shah, Meta's VP of Metaverse, said (AI4P is AI for Productivity). The idea is that programmers should be using AI to work five times more efficiently than they are currently working -- not just using it to go 5 percent more efficiently. "Our goal is simple yet audacious: make Al a habit, not a novelty. This means prioritizing training and adoption for everyone, so that using Al becomes second nature -- just like any other tool we rely on," the message read. "It also means integrating Al into every major codebase and workflow." Shah added that this doesn't just apply to engineers. "I want to see PMs, designers, and [cross functional] partners rolling up their sleeves and building prototypes, fixing bugs, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible," he wrote. "I want to see us go 5X faster by eliminating the frictions that slow us down. And 5X faster to get to how our products feel much more quickly. Imagine a world where anyone can rapidly prototype an idea, and feedback loops are measured in hours -- not weeks. That's the future we're building." Meta's metaverse products, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg renamed the company to highlight, have been a colossal time sink and money pit, with the company spending tens of billions of dollars developing a product that relatively few people use. Zuckerberg has spoken extensively about how he expects AI agents to write most of Meta's code within the next 12 to 18 months. The company also recently decided that job candidates would be allowed to use AI as part of their coding tests during job interviews. But Shah's message highlights a fear that workers have had for quite some time: That bosses are not just expecting to replace workers with AI, they are expecting those who remain to use AI to become far more efficient. The implicit assumption is that the work that skilled humans do without AI simply isn't good enough. At this point, most tech giants are pushing AI on their workforces. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in July that he expects AI to completely transform how the company works -- and lead to job loss. "In the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," he said.

Meta's Struggling Metaverse Team Told to Work 5 Times Faster With AI

Meta expects expects 80% of Metaverse employees to have AI integrated into their daily routines by the end of the year. Meta employees still working on the Metaverse are now expected to use AI to supercharge their productivity by at least fivefold. In an internal message first reported by 404 Media, Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah, told employees they should be using AI to boost their work performance. The note included a graphic that read, “Think 5x, not 5%.†“Our goal is simple yet audacious: make Al a habit, not a novelty. This means prioritizing training and adoption for everyone, so that using Al becomes second natureâ€"just like any other tool we rely on,†Shah wrote, according to 404. It wasn’t that long ago when the Metaverse seemed to be CEO Mark Zuckerberg's biggest priority. The company even rebranded to Meta in 2021 to highlight its new virtual and augmented reality products and platforms. At one point, Meta even said the Metaverse could become “as important as smartphones.†But since then, the Metaverse has failed to live up to the hype. The company at one point reportedly burned through nearly $50 billion on its VR division. Nowadays, Zuckerberg seems far more interested in AI. Meta is now pouring billions into artificial intelligence projects, poaching talent from rival OpenAI, and building massive data centers in Ohio and Louisiana. The company has also repeatedly said AI will play an increasingly central role in its operations. “It's well-known that this is a priority and we're focused on using AI to help employees with their day-to-day work,†a Meta spokesperson told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. For his part, Zuckerberg told investors on a call in April that he expects by the middle of next year that AI agents "are going to be doing a substantial part of AI research and development...†In May, he reiterated that, saying they’ll write most of Meta’s code within the next 12 to 18 months. Now, we’re getting a glimpse of how those efforts are trickling down to workers and maybe even how AI could lead to a revived Metaverse. “A 5X leap in productivity isn’t about small incremental improvements, it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we work, build, and innovate,†Shah wrote. He added that AI should be integrated into every “major codebase and workflow,†and said the company expects 80% of Metaverse employees to have AI integrated into their daily routines by the end of the year. And this doesn’t just apply to engineers. Shah said project managers, designers, and others should also be “rolling up their sleeves and building prototypes, fixing bugs, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.†He said the team could move five times faster by eliminating friction and rapidly prototyping ideas with feedback loops measured in hours, not weeks.