On the 22nd of September 2021, Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth was chosen for the new CTO position at Facebook. He is replacing Mike Schroepfer, who announced that he leaves his role in 2022. The replacement is indicative of another sign that Facebook’s Metaverse is coming.
The current CTO of Facebook, and AI-focused, Mike “Schrep” Schroepfer, announced in a Facebook post that he would be stepping down as CTO – being replaced by the VR/AR focused, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. As Mike begins in the post, “After 13 amazing years at Facebook, I have made the decision to step down as Chief Technology Officer and transition to a new part time role as Facebook’s first Senior Fellow at the company sometime in 2022.”
The ‘Boz’ began his career path at Microsoft as a Software Engineer. After Mark Zuckerberg had Bosworth as a Teaching Assistant in his AI class, they got to know each other. Then Facebook hired Andrew.
One of Bosworth’s first tasks at Facebook was assisting in developing Facebook’s News Feed. He also helped leading Facebook Groups, Messenger, and Video Call departments. He then pivoted towards the business side of becoming VP of Facebook’s profitable ad operations and overall business platform.
But what Andrew Bosworth is most known for is his pivotal role at Oculus VR headsets, soon also AR HMDs, after Facebook famously acquired the company, renaming the department to Facebook Reality Labs.
Some of Andrew’s achievements on his resume are leading the Facebook Horizon Work Rooms – the VR meeting and conference platform –, and a new product line-up with Ray-Ban of AR smart glasses. While he was currently developing overlayed imagery on top of the real world, a central AR feature. Essentially, the new hire of Andrew Bosworth as the CTO is the coming sign of an impending Facebook Metaverse.
Mark Zuckerberg said related to the announcement of Andrew as the new CTO, “This is all foundational to our broader efforts helping to build the metaverse, and I’m excited about the future of this work under Boz’s leadership.”
This is a clear indication of Zuckerberg’s vision of an alternative universe. This universe is known as the Facebook Metaverse and VR / AR technology is its driver. A future strategy, defined as a fully immersive online environment where you and I can socialize and conduct business. A page out of much science-fiction content such as Neuromancer, The Matrix, and Ready Player One.
New hires of Mark Zuckerberg have always been indicative of his plans within Facebook. Mike Schroepfer was hired due to his expertise within AI and using adaptive algorithms to manage the content of Facebook. Making the Andrew Bosworth CTO role the next step in this immersive growth strategy, pivoting his focus away from AI: the next step in Mark’s recruiting for a new Facebook Reality Labs team solely focused on such embodied ‘Metaverse’ internet.