New Facebook tech chief Andrew Bosworth to focus on metaverse
This year, Andrew Bosworth replaces Meta's longtime chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer. Bosworth is expected to steer the company even more strongly toward the Metaverse.
In the fall of 2021, Schroepfer announced his retirement for personal reasons in 2022. He joined Facebook in 2008 and has been chief technology officer since 2013. In this role, Schroepfer overlooks all fundamental technological advances such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Schroepfer will remain with Meta in an advisory role after his departure.
Bosworth is Zuckerberg's longtime companion
Andrew Bosworth, a longtime companion of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is taking over the job. Bosworth has been at Facebook since 2006 and knows Zuckerberg from college. Among other things, he developed Facebook's advertising business.
Most recently, Bosworth headed Meta's Reality Labs, where more than 10,000 employees research VR, AR, and other future technologies. Under his leadership, for example, Meta Quest 2, the video chat devices Portal and the Ray-Ban Stories camera glasses launched.
Bosworth CTO role reinforces Meta's focus on the Metaverse
Despite his new role as CTO for the entire company, Bosworth is supposed to maintain a strong Metaverse focus, Business Insider reported, citing internal sources.
Bosworth is expected to continue to focus primarily on the Metaverse, overlooking AI technology development as well as advancing Meta's Workplace platform, which is now a part of Reality Labs.
Artificial intelligence also fits into the Metaverse focus: AI applications such as computer vision are a foundational technology for VR and AR, among others. Bosworth remains head of Reality Labs.
Other departments at Meta that previously reported to Schroepfer will no longer report directly to Bosworth. The exact structure is to be determined after Schroepfer's resignation.
Zuckerberg himself justified Bosworth's appointment as CTO last year in an internal memo, citing the Metaverse: "All of this is fundamental to our efforts to build the Metaverse," Zuckerberg wrote.
Read more about Meta:
- Meta's new AI supercomputer to lay the groundwork for the Metaverse
- Virtual Reality: Why Meta need not fear Apple
- Meta shows learning algorithm for multitasking AI
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