Meta Creates ‘Builder Bot’ That Can Form Full Virtual Worlds Just From Voice

In building the metaverse promised to fuel our futures, tools are going to be required. One of these appears to be Meta’s new ‘Builder Bot’, a technology demonstrated during Wednesday’s Meta AI: Inside the Lab event. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains the bot as an “exploratory concept” that shows off what artificial intelligence can do when it comes to building new worlds within the metaverse. This AI will allow users to import things into virtual destinations just by using voice commands, or even have them materialize out of thin air. 

To give an example, he says, “let’s go to the park.” Immediately, the bot does just that: creates a park. Feigning a change of mind, he changes the command to “let’s go to the beach.”

The bot replaces the greenery with sand and waters. Zuckerberg then also adds some clouds because, well, he can. 

“Let’s add an island over there,” he suggests to the bot, and points to the area he wants it in. A few other finishing touches are commanded, like trees, picnic blankets, and even the soundscape of wildlife. 

TechCrunch notes that although the novelty is appealing, the voice commands might not be conducive towards building more complex environments with a large number of elements within them.

However, it’s still suitable for entry-level experience, especially with users who may not be familiar with VR at first. 

“As we advance this technology further, you’ll be able to create nuanced worlds to explore and share experiences with others, with just your voice,” Zuckerberg declares.

At the time of writing, it can be presumed that the tool is still undergoing development—just like the metaverse itself. There hasn’t been word on when the tool will be available, or how the technicality of it all works out. 

At the event, Meta also revealed its plans to create a universal speech translator, which would be capable of translating speech-to-speech across all languages. 

[via TechCrunch and Reuters, images via Meta]