It was tempting to immerse myself in a virtual world of sun and warmth this winter, but now that spring is here, I can handle reality (mostly). Beyond escaping to a beach, immersive technology has been in the news this month for a growing number of industrial applications. 

Siemens + MIT Industrial Metaverse Report

MIT Technology Review, in partnership with Siemens, released a report on the emerging industrial metaverse. The report defines the industrial metaverse and how it will continue to grow and expand as other emerging technologies (5G, digital twins, IoT, etc.) mature as well. The industrial metaverse is still young, but it could play a big role in the green energy transition if industry players can collaborate and foster an open ecosystem. 

ChatGPT and Generative AI in Industrial Applications

ChatGPT has mostly been in the news lately for its alleged sentience (it’s not) and whether (or when) students using it is considered cheating. 

Plus, it’s just a fun tool to play with. I asked it a few questions and it did OK on the basics, but it also just…made stuff up? 

But beyond the consumer and college-kid uses of ChatGPT, generative AI—the category of AI ChatGPT falls under—is being used to help employees practice training scenarios, come up with new R&D ideas, and more.

AI is in use, and it’s likely not going away anytime soon. The key is using it responsibly and for the right applications.

Snap Back to Reality Capture

Reality capture technologies—which range from video cameras and computer vision AI to real-time sensors and drones—are connecting the physical and digital worlds. 

Digital twins and other metaverse-adjacent technologies rely on real-time data capture, display, and analysis. Augmented reality overlays digital information on top of the real world to provide more context, training, instructions, or cool new Pokémon. 

The effectiveness of the metaverse—and the applications being tested—relies on high-quality real-time data and the ability to analyze and understand outputs. Reality capture tools are bridging that physical/digital gap. 

There are lots of technological advances coming together to start to form the industrial metaverse as enterprises use them to grab competitive advantage.