On Wednesday’s Meta’s quarterly earnings call, Zuckerberg set his sights on: recent headlines This suggests the company can abandon its ambitions of creating a digital world, or “metaverse,” and instead focus on the AI ​​craze sweeping Silicon Valley.

“There is talk unfolding that in some way we are moving away from focusing on the Metaverse division. “For years, we have focused on both AI and the metaverse, and we will continue to focus on both.”

The 38-year-old CEO and Facebook founder has released a series of numbers and metrics showing progress in the metaverse. Over a million metahis avatars have been created. Half of the people who use the company’s Quest VR headset every day spend more than an hour in the virtual realm.

And to show that both artificial intelligence and the Metaverse are part of the same broad corporate strategy, Zuckerberg inserted a new term into the discussion: AI agents.

“I think we have an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday, among the first few instances of conjuring these mysterious new beings. (The term “AI agent” was not mentioned once in the company’s 2022 earnings call).

Although Zuckerberg has provided some clues, who or what these soon-to-be-unleashed “agents” are is still open to speculation. AI agents will be “meaningful and useful” for all kinds of people, including Facebook users, creators and businesses, he said. They handle customer support for businesses on apps like WhatsApp and Messenger.Chatbot developed by the company in 2016But these agents also have a form and a body, at least in the virtual world.

“By embodying an AI agent, we can leverage the significant investment we’ve made in Avatar over the past few years,” Zuckerberg noted at another point.

Meta shares rose 12% in extended trading on Wednesday. This is due to the company’s better-than-expected first quarter results and plans to reduce operating expenses.Zuckerberg vows 2023 to be ‘year of efficiency’, but cuts meta 10,000 employeesor 13% of the company, a series of layoffs.

Since changing its name from Facebook to Meta in October 2021, the company has had to fend off sharp criticism from investors. Brad Gerstner, CEO of investment firm Altimeter Capital and Meta shareholder, said: I have written In October 2022, Meta had to “get fit and focused.” This required aggressively reducing employee-related expenses and reducing financial responsibility in the metaverse space.

recent Reuters report Former Facebook board member Peter Thiel told Zuckerberg and other executives that the Metaverse effort was a distraction and that the company would make concessions to TikTok, a competitor in its core social media market. I warned you that it might be the cause.

wall street journal Perhaps things will change when AI agents arrive on the scene.