Despite critics writing off Meta's metaverse dream, Mark Zuckerberg's recent demonstration of photorealistic avatars suggests it may not be dead after all. During a conversation with computer scientist Lex Fridman on his podcast, the two used photorealistic avatars in the metaverse, facilitated through Meta's Quest 3 headsets and noise-canceling headphones.

The technology displayed is the newest version of Codec Avatars, one of Meta's longest-running research projects. However, users may have to wait a few years before donning their own realistic avatars, as the tech requires expensive machine learning software and specialized equipment featuring over 100 cameras.