Much has been made of the metaverse and its potential to change the world, though in many ways it is still a thing of the future. Some of its logistical hurdles and potentially negative aspects also need to be ironed out, as do misconceptions about what it actually is.

In the absence of universal basic standards and rules for how data is used and how digital markets operate, the world risks missing out on potential solutions to global problems that new technologies have to offer. The leading digital powers must recognize that more alignment is in everyone's best interest.

The MIT-hosted ‘Moral Machine’ study has surveyed public preferences regarding how AI applications should behave in various settings over the past few years. One conclusion from the data is that when an autonomous vehicle encounters a life-or-death scenario, how one thinks it should respond depends largely on where one is from, and what one knows about the pedestrians or passengers involved. It is more complicated than one might think.