EXPLAINER: What is the metaverse and how will it work?

By MATT O’BRIEN and KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

The term “metaverse” is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination _ so much so that one of the best-known internet platforms is rebranding to embrace the futuristic idea. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Thursday announcement that he’s changing his company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, might be the biggest thing to happen to the metaverse since science fiction writer Neal Stephenson coined the term for his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” But Zuckerberg and his team are hardly the only tech visionaries with ideas on how the metaverse should take shape using a mix of virtual reality and other technologies.