NEOM Tech & Digital Co. launched the world’s first cognitive metaverse, XVRS, and M3LD, a personal data management platform, as part of its $1 billion commitment to investing in future technology projects.
The kingdom will invest more than $6.4bn in future technologies, the kingdom’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Alswaha announced during his keynote address at the LEAP22 event.
Today, Saudi’s technology market is worth more than $40bn with over 318,000 jobs in the sector and the rate of participation of women in the ICT workforce at 28 percent.
The launch of XVRS, a 3D cognitive digital twin metaverse platform, will enable integration of the virtual and real worlds, according to NEOM. The platform will offer users ‘multiple points of view’ and the ability to feature in a variety of locations across the metaverse in real time (via teleportation) as an avatar, hologram, or robotic avatar.
“The future will be defined not by megacities, but by cognitive meta cities. It is a vision focused on experiences rather than scale. XVRS puts human needs at its core,” said Joseph Bradley, CEO, NEOM Tech & Digital Company.
“XVRS is the only iteration of the metaverse currently in development that will be a mixed-reality, 3D digital twin of a physical place – in our case, the NEOM community. It will be comprised of next-generation digital assets that users can interact with in the real world,” he added.
NEOM Tech & Digital Company also revealed the launch of its innovative consent management platform, M3LD. The platform is able to reveal who is in possession of a user’s data, monitor how it is being used, and provide recommendations on privacy settings for all their digital accounts.
“M3LD will place data ownership back in the hands of users and restore trust in the data economy. Today, trust is fundamental. Without trust, there is no data. Without data, there is no value. M3LD gives subscribers the benefit of transparency and, if a user agrees, a way to benefit from providing consent to use of their personal data,” Bradley said during LEAP22.
“A M3LD subscription will give users control over what commercial entities do with their data, as well as customisation of privacy consent profiles according to data and usage types,” added Su Le, chief digital & strategy officer, NEOM Tech & Digital Company. The announcements were made as part of Saudi Arabia’s flagship technology event LEAP22, taking place in Riyadh until February 3.
