After spending the better part of two years raving about the metaverse on every platform he could like an obsessed maniac, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has quietly buried the thing he once claimed was the future of the tech industry.
While its understandable that Zuckerberg didn't want to publicly state that he'd made an error in judgment, he's suddenly gone all heart-eyed over the biggest new thing in the tech world -- and his latest hyperfixation has a lot of people worried.
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That thing, of course, is AI and the promise of what it could become. But with many of Meta's top execs now refocusing on artificial intelligence, investors and analysts alike are concerned that this is just another wild goose chase that's caught Zuck's fancy.
"Keep an eye on Zuckerberg's newfound love with all things AI," Bernstein analysts said in a research email after a meeting with tech investors. "It seems that the year of efficiency is winding down (we made it to April) and a name change to MetAI (our best guess) is now possible."
While the company's widespread layoffs over the past six months have pleased investors -- the stock has been on a slow but steady rise since dipping below $100 in Nov. 2022 -- the internal temperature at Meta has been reported as undergoing a "morale crisis."
All eyes will be on Zuckerberg on Wed. April 26 for the company's 2023 Q1 earnings call. But whether or not he can keep his cool around how Meta will use AI remains to be seen.
