Artificial intelligence has been dominating tech headlines lately thanks to OpenAI’s advanced GPT models and competitors, and such models can generate text and media with alarming speed and accuracy. They may revolutionize many industries and experiences—and one Website 3 metaverse app has already found a way to tap into the technology.
OcyberA 3D world-building platform that supports a wide array of NFTs and is used by Web3 creators and communities, revealed this week that it has developed an AI-powered tool called Magic Composer that lets users customize their environments with text commands.
It’s how to use ChatGPT—and it works on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model (not the brand new GPT-4)—but instead of returning well-curated information from the web, a poem or a book report, or even functional blockchain codeOncyber uses text prompts to implement real-time adjustments to its worlds.
With a line of text dropped into the Magic Composer, Oncyber can automatically change the appearance and color of the sky, insert an artist’s NFT works from your connected crypto wallet, customize the appearance and size of image frames in the world, and more. And this is just the first version of the tool, Oncyber founder and CEO Rayan Boutaleb said Decrypt.
“In the next iteration, we want people to bring any hallucination or dream they have into a 3D canvas and just directly see the result of what they could imagine and change things,” he said. “It’s a first step towards a very big end result, which we’re not that far from.”
A screenshot of Oncyber’s AI tool in its revamped 3D studio. Image: Oncyber
Embracing AI tools wasn’t about chasing the latest buzz tech trend, but rather finding another way to help users unlock their creativity on the platform. There is a disconnect between the power of Oncyber’s game-like engine and the visual user interface, Boutaleb explained.
The Magic Composer provides a way for users to get what they want with relative ease. And as Oncyber layers in additional world-building features in the coming months and provides ways for creators to develop richer environments, the AI tool will hopefully cut some of the complexity and ensure accessible ways to customize online 3D spaces.
Oncyber plans to roll out the AI tool to a select group of testers starting Monday, March 20, but Boutaleb said it won’t be long before it reaches public users—perhaps a few days later.
More robust AI functionality is also on the horizon. Boutaleb said that over time, he hopes to add more sophisticated generation features, such as the ability to generate custom or modified 3D architecture simply by typing a request. Over time, Oncyber’s goal is to have “fewer and fewer limits/constraints” for users, he added.
Launched in 2021, Oncyber called itself a metaverse platform, and shares common with Web3 metaverse game platforms like Decentralized and The Sandbox this also lets users customize their own online spaces.
But unlike those platforms, Oncyber didn’t sell NFT plots of land which are required to build within these worlds, rejecting the condition of “FOMO” and speculation motivated by land scarcity. Oncyber does, however, sell NFT-based templates, working with architects and designers to develop prefabricated spaces that can be further customized.
There are also free spaces and templates, and you don’t need an NFT or crypto wallet to create a space. Oncyber also lets users bring owned NFTs across Ethereum, Solana, A polygon, and other networks. Some NFT collectors use Oncyber to create their own virtual art gallerieswhile others use the platform to host immersive online community events.
Because Oncyber—which raised $6.7 million last year—wasn’t tied to the NFT boom cycle that sprung and then fell, Boutaleb said his team focused on constant iteration to the platform. Other recent additions include improved VR support plus the ability to bring in external video and screen-sharing streams.