The metaverse. Remember all the hype? Promises of an all-knowing digital utopia, metaverse-saturated societies, and the end of physical distance as we know it? Now, crickets. Worse yet, you could end up in vast, desolate online parking deserts. The value of this virtual real estate has crashed even more precipitously than your crypto portfolio after a tweet from, uh, you know who. The dream, it seems, is sputtering. It’s a dystopian disaster, full of bad UX, unfriendly corporate land acquisitions, and a general absence of… um, spirit.

Enter TerraZero and their AI guide, “Gigi,” created to iron out the wrinkles in their Intraverse platform. Gigi is here to be your delightful, friendly, colorful, voice-activated companion. Prepare to travel, create, and play in the metaverse like never before! Imagine it as a Siri or Alexa for immersive digital exploration. Sounds promising, right? A friendly face in a confusing landscape. Before we pop the champagne, let’s pump the brakes and raise some hard questions. Is this truly salvation or simply another gilded cage?

Data Privacy? Really?

To make the 3D web a more interactive and captivating place, TerraZero claims that Gigi can help. Picture this: Their founders dream of a future in which AI anticipates what you need, helping you navigate the digital world without a hitch. And yes, that sounds great on paper. What powers Gigi? A closed-source AI model. Trained, they say, specifically on Intraverse's features. Translation? They’re continuing to vacuum up all your data to feed that machine.

Now, I'm not a Luddite. Trust me, I get it — AI can’t work without data. But closed-source? That's where my eyebrows start to arch. In this case, we’re discussing a black box algorithm, where the inner workings are not accessible to the public. How are we supposed to know what all this data Gigi is collecting looks like? How is it being used? Who has access to it? These are not hypothetical concerns! The technology sector has experienced thousands of data breaches and privacy infringements. The metaverse comes with its own unique dangers, as immersive experiences are not without their dangers.

Think about it. You’re making art with Gigi, teaching it what you like, what you’ve created, learning about your own, highly digital identity. We take all that info and pour it into a proprietary algorithm. This whole process affects your experience in ways you may not be aware of. Now picture having a real estate agent who only sells you houses that increase their cut. They masquerade as your well-meaning neighbor, but their dark underbelly isn’t so easy to see.

Centralization? Danger Zone

Decentralization was one of the metaverse’s core promises. It’s a world without the tech monopolies—where users own their data and control their own experiences. Gigi, as currently drafted, appears to be doing just the opposite.

By moving forward with an AI assistant that’s closed-source, TerraZero is contributing to a walled garden within the already highly-fragmented metaverse. They are determining what information consumers have access to, what experience users will have, and in some cases even restricting their users within their ecosystem.

This centralization of power is a perilous gamble. It fragments the open web, undermines competition, user choice and innovation, and creates new avenues for censorship and manipulation. It’s akin to creating a city where only one corporation controls every street, every utility and every vehicle transporting information.

A decentralized metaverse is an open-source metaverse. In this collaborative ecosystem, users have the freedom to select and customize their AI assistants, manage their data proactively, and be directly involved in shaping the platform’s evolution. We need to be skeptical of companies promising they can “rescue” the metaverse. Or, they just try to concentrate power in their hands.

User Agency? Are You Sure?

What happens to user agency when AI starts making decisions for us?

Gigi’s goal is to walk users through the process, answer their questions, and assist them in exploring the Intraverse. At what point does the supposedly helpful guidance cross that line into manipulation? At what point does assistance become control?

Now just think about a world where Gigi quietly pushes you toward some experiences, some products, some interactions. Perhaps it’s a nudge down the line, a wink and a nod, a gentle turn of the dial on the algorithm. In the long run, all of these minor nudges can profoundly affect your decision making and future actions.

It's like being in a casino where the house always wins, you're convinced you're making your own decisions.

Aside from the AI assistants whose influence is well documented, we should all consider the ways in which AI assistants might undermine our autonomy and agency. Ultimately, we need to put users back in control of their experiences. Let’s make AI an enabler for those good ideas, not a coercive tool.

I implore you: Gigi has potential. Do not dismiss these deeply important ethical issues, because if you do, you will waste that potential. Otherwise, the metaverse will just be another broken promise. Show us the code. Be transparent about your data practices. Embrace decentralization. And, vitally, give users control so they can shape their own digital future. Because only then can Gigi really bring the metaverse to life. Otherwise, it’s just another brick on the wall.