European policymakers were rising to the challenge of facilitating financial support, political frameworks, and building skills for the future role of the Metaverse, an exec said at the GatherVerse Safety Summit last week.

Luis Bravo Martins, VP, XRSI Europe, explored the role of virtual worlds across the European continent. His presentation comes just weeks after the Council of Europe developed a critical framework for regulating artificial intelligence (AI) with security partners worldwide.

According to the European Commission, the Metaverse is set to become the next stage of the internet, where users will seamlessly connect digital and physical spaces, related objects, people, and AI and human-based avatars.

Martins cited Commission figures that the estimated size of the global metaverse market would reach around €800bn by 2030. Analysts also predicted it would supply roughly 860,000 new jobs by 2025, he added.

He explained further,

“Virtual worlds are set to transform the business and employment market, and for this reason, the European Commission already already created its own strategy for the virtual worlds in this technological transition.”

Some of the key building blocks for the Metaverse included skills outlined in the Digital Europe Programme.

The Commission has supplied the initiative with a budget of €580m to train potential hires via its Advanced Digital Skills Europe (ADSEU) programme, which is accepting applications until 21 November.

ADSEU aims to build a library of city infrastructure using virtual, real-time digital twins, he told audiences.

READ MORE: What to Expect from the Council of Europe’s AI Convention

Furthermore, EU lawmakers passed a bill for a European digital identity wallet, allowing people to seamlessly port their digital identities, assets, wearables, and information across virtual worlds.

Doing so will increase Metaverse interoperability, where users can receive services physical and digitally, with the programme facilitating “exponentially” more data exchanges, he noted.

He explained to the audience,

“This is crucial to bring this vision of the Metaverse to life. It’s also very important to understand that this means our relationship with data changes, because a lot more data will flow incredibly fast between physical and digital elements.”

With the rise of emerging technologies, humans began incorporating biometrics, AI agents, and other tools in their daily lives at the collective social scale as well as civilisational level, he explained.

He added,

“There’s a lot we need to do if we really ant to adopt or steer this change, and to do so, we need awareness, access to trustworthy information, digital skills, user acceptance, to foster adoption.”

These milestones were key to building trust in new technologies “in a safe manner,” Martins explained.

“That’s why it makes so much sense for all of us to work together to build this safe but amazing news stage of the internet,” Martins concluded.

The GatherVerse Safety Summit on AI, XR, and Cybersecurity took place with its one-day series of panel discussions on 2 October.

READ MORE: GatherVerse AI Safety Summit Decodes Hurdles to Tech Regulation, Ethics

Thought leaders and experts joined the round table talks to explore the future of emerging technology impacts, ethics, and regulations.

As these innovations take shape across industry verticals, the GatherVerse and its sister organisation, Hyper Policy, aims to address and tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the market.

Christopher Lafayette, Founder, GatherVerse and Hyper Policy, hosted the event for roughly 30 speakers across education, fintech, academia, and institutions. Since its inception in 2021, the GatherVerse has kicked off 25 themed events to decode challenges across industry verticals.

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