Meta Platforms (META) Develops 3 New AI Models for Metaverse

Meta Platforms META recently announced that the company’s AI researchers and audio specialists from the Reality labs team built three new AI models — Visual-Acoustic Matching, Visually-Informed Dereverberation and VisualVoice.

Meta’s research team built these new models, which will specifically focus on audio-visual perception, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Texas at Austin.

The newly designed AI models, currently available for developers, will help Meta build the Metaverse as a more refined immersive reality space by making the sound more realistic in mixed and virtual reality experiences.

The AI models create a unique experience for the users in the Metaverse. For instance, the visual acoustic matchmaking model called AViTAR is self-supervised and matches audio to match the space of a target image. One of the future utilities of this model is quite distinctive, like reliving past memories.

When one puts on a pair of AR glasses and sees an object, they will have the option of replaying the memory associated with that object. The newly launched AI models are capable of achieving such audacious feats.

AI is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution, and Meta is investing heavily to build its AI, which can support the growth of both of its business segments —  Family of Apps and the building of Metaverse.

Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus

Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus
Meta Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus

Meta Platforms, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote

Meta Investing In AI to Drive Long-Term Top Line

Meta’s revenue growth was driven exponentially by the e-commerce boom during the pandemic. However, that was momentum growth and is finally slowing down. Meta’s share price has been significantly impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war, which can be described as a black swan event.

While war has historically impacted businesses and the economy globally before but the sanctions imposed by the United States, the G7 and the EU upon Russia have been unprecedented in scale and scope.

The sheer number of sanctions triggered by this situation makes the global geopolitical situation extremely complicated and makes it difficult to predict how this will impact businesses globally.

Meta, whose services have been banned in Russia, is losing a significant portion of its ad revenues from that region. This kind of negative global geopolitical situation and inflation, which the war has aggravated, has hurt the company's stock price.

Shares of Meta have tumbled 49.8% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Internet – Software industry decline of 48.6%.

The situation is not expected to get better in the near term as negative sentiments are clearly reflected by traders shorting shares of every major tech stock in the NASDAQ composite, including Meta’s social media peer Twitter TWTR and tech giants Alphabet GOOGL and Apple AAPL.

Twitter shares have fallen 8.4% compared with the Zacks Internet Software industry’s decline of 48.6%.

Alphabet shares have lost 19% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Internet – Services industry’s decline of 21.6%.

Apple’s shares have fallen 20% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Computer - Mini computers industry’s decline of 19.7%.

Although Meta’s short-term revenue growth looks bleak, the company is confident about its long-term growth. Meta is investing heavily in developing AI, which will drive revenue growth across ad business and the Metaverse.

Reels are the newest trend right now, and the feeds are increasingly being recommended by AI. This will enable Meta to evolve its ad systems to do more with less data, thus minimizing its privacy policy issues substantially.

Further, as Meta is banking its future on building the Metaverse, investment in AI is expected to bring lofty ROI for the company and separate its services from competitors. This will impact shareholders' growth positively and makes it a lucrative stock to retain in your portfolio.

Meta currently carries Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


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