Cyber & IT Supervisory Forum - Additional Resources

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27 M ETAVERSE O VERVIEW

Broadly speaking, the technologies companies refer to when they talk about “the Metaverse ” can include virtual reality characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you are not playing as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. 617 The Metaverse is set to function through a few base technologies to include virtual reality, augmented reality, machine learning, and AI. 618 Since these all incorporate behavioral learning technologies, they can collect massive amounts of personal information, data, and users' biometrics with quickly and with little effort. The Metaverse promises to bring innovation to sectors from education to e-commerce, with the potential to generate up to $5 trillion in economic impact by 2030, according to a June 2022 report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. 619 620 27.1.1 Digital Twins Overview The personal digital twin extends to individual persons, a concept that originated in engineering to twin complex machines with a digital simulation having a model of its functions to check it’s past and present behavior, and repair, correct, improve, or otherwise ensure its best operation.  With a “personal digital twin,” you can create a digital replica that reproduces some of their repetitive actions that can be programmed to learn how users think.  Digital twins are being created in factories and cities, and there is even a model called Earth 2 which is an effort that attempts to create a digital twin of the planet and model climate change. 621 622 623 Presently there is a company called Merlynn that is an AI-centric tech firm, which has already begun marketing a human “digital twin” that might initially improve productivity but could eventually lead to the elimination of human employees in many companies. 624 27.1.2 Digital Twins In The Metaverse The Metaverse is likely to usher in a new era of fraud and deception, fueled by increasingly sophisticated immersive technologies and AI. One form of future fraud may be "evil" digital twins’ exact virtual replicas that look, sound, and act like you (or people you know and trust) but are controlled by fraudsters.  In March 2022, an identified CEO of a US technology company specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Metaverse solutions gave a keynote address using a cartoon-like digital twin.  His keynote address described that the quality of how realistic digital twins will appear will only grow in the coming years, as will the ability for AI engines to autonomously control a user’s digital twin so they can be in multiple places at once.  He estimated in the next 3-5 years Digital Twins would be capable of operating without a user’s assistance to handle various tasks. 625 While this emerging technology has so many useful applications, threat actors could just as easily spoof a user’s mannerisms and create “evil” digital twins which accurately depict a user’s virtual replica and use for fraudulent purposes.

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