Mark Zuckerberg livestreams VR tour of flood-hit Puerto Rico via Facebook Spaces, pledges $1.5 mn for disaster relief

Merging livestreaming and virtual reality together, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and its head of social virtual reality, Rachel Franklin teleported to the flood-hit Puerto Rico. They also announced that Facebook would launch the Oculus IV in the coming days. [caption id=“attachment_4128031” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mark Zuckerberg in outer space. Facebook[/caption] The livestream video was a part promotional and part philanthropic attempt that some see as having been made in poor taste. The Guardian, in fact, described the event as “a tone-deaf livestream that was part disaster tourism, part product promotion”. Though both were very much in California, through a virtual reality headset Zuckerberg and Franklin explored flood-hit Puerto Rico VR. In the virtual reality livestream, they were animated figures. The livestream took place via Facebook Spaces. The company intends to help the flood-hit country via NetHope and the American Red Cross. Zuckerberg said that they intend to donate more than $1.5 million for the cause. Moreover, they also announced the creation of population maps using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through AI, they intend to build population maps, which would help organisations to understand where help is needed the most. He said, “One of the things that’s really magical about VR is that you can get the feeling that you’re really in a place.” From Puerto Rico to outer space, their virtual sojourn ended at Zuckerberg’s house with his dog. Interestingly in VR in Facebook Spaces, the animated figures have no lower body. **Recently** , Facebook said that it has created a data map of the human population of 23 countries by combining government census numbers with information obtained from satellites. It used the data to understand the precise distribution of humans around the planet. This would help in gauging the  kind of internet service is required to see the type of **internet service** is required in places. It can be especially useful for those who have low internet. It is through this data that they can also figure that which technology is best suited for the people in different spaces.