Metaverse could accelerate manufacturing as well as social ills

A visitor tries the "metaverse Service" at SK Telecom stand during GSMA's 2022 Mobile World Congress (MWC), in Barcelona, Spain February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Albert Gea/Files

AUSTIN (Reuters) - For companies playing with virtual reality as disparate as plane-maker Boeing Co and online-gaming platform Roblox Corp, forays into the so-called "metaverse" have come with equal parts promise and peril.

The U.S. aviation giant is looking to digital technology to accelerate production of new aircraft, said Susan Doniz, Boeing's chief information officer, at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. She cited how Boeing cut the development time of the T-7 trainer jet by 80% to three years as an example of what might be possible for commercial airplanes.