According to a report from The New York Times, Vice Media Group, the entertainment outlet, is expected to file for bankruptcy. The news arrives amid considerable downsizing in the once leading media giant. Vice has long been known for its outreach to younger audiences and popularizing itself on social media platforms.

Buzzfeed also recently announced the closure of its news division. After years of edgy and “irreverant” reporting, it seems the act is over.

Other major technology companies are cutting expenses and laying off employees. With Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the woes seem to amount to the failed metaverse project, which was apparently was supposed to be so groundbreaking that it merited a makeover of the company name. With its vague appeal, poor sales, and cautious investment, Zuckerberg’s hopes for curating a digital paradise are coming up short.

Matt Purple writes insightfully on the hype of the metaverse and the looming specter of AI that has far overshadowed it:

We may not be hurled into the metaverse, but in fact AI potentially poses even more daunting problems. As for Meta, it occasionally calls to mind the words of the great Renaissance man Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: they “were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

-Matt Purple, Good riddance to the metaverse – The Spectator World

As with the metaverse, architects of the new AI systems are plowing ahead into what they see as a steppingstone in human society. Is their optimism just as misplaced?

For further reading:

• Godfather of AI: I Regret What I’ve Done | Mind Matters
• A World Without Work? Here We Go Again | Mind Matters
• AI is a Tool, Not a Solution for Everything | Mind Matters