Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse

Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse: A Clinician’s Guide to Getting Started with Virtual Reality-Based Psychotherapy by Bruce Bassi should be our next book out in the Metaverse Series.

Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse provides mental health practitioners with a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to integrating virtual reality into psychotherapeutic practice. From preparing patients and obtaining informed consent to selecting hardware and designing virtual exposure environments, this book translates a growing body of research into practical clinical guidance.

The book equips clinicians with the knowledge needed to navigate every stage of VR integration. It begins with the preparatory steps — building the therapeutic alliance, obtaining informed consent and identifying appropriate patients — before examining the ethical, logistical and technological considerations involved in delivering VR-based interventions. Detailed chapters apply VR to the three pillars of cognitive behavioural therapy: exposure-based desensitization, cognitive restructuring and skills training. Case examples show how virtual environments can be individually tailored to treat conditions ranging from contamination OCD to treatment-resistant auditory hallucinations. The final section looks ahead, reviewing hardware and software advances and presenting a four-phase roadmap from augmented reality to psychotherapy in a fully realised metaverse.

Virtual Reality Therapy in the Metaverse is intended for practising psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and trainees, as well as researchers and technology developers working at the intersection of mental health and immersive technology.

The book is due for publication on 22nd October with pre-orders opening 1st October. You can pre-order the book at Routledge.com.

OPENVERSE Summit “Open and Co-Created Virtual Worlds for Europe”

We heard about this initiative when David was presenting at the Digital Higher Education conference a few months ago, and good to see that the EU seems to be taking virtual worlds seriously again.

"The OPENVERSE Summit 2026 is the flagship European policy and ecosystem event dedicated to building open, interoperable, and human-centric Virtual Worlds.

Taking place in Brussels, at the heart of EU decision-making, the Summit positions Europe not only as a technological innovator, but as a global standard-setter shaping the rules and values of future immersive environments.

Organised by the OPENVERSE Coordination and Support Action (CSA), the Summit will serve as a high-level convening platform bringing together EU policymakers and institutional leaders; Horizon Europe projects and research initiatives; Industry pioneers and technology providers; Civil society representatives; Investors and ecosystem builders. Its strategic Brussels location underscores its role as a policy-driven milestone aligned with Europe’s digital priorities."

More information at: https://open-verse.eu/event/openverse-summit-open-and-co-created-virtual-worlds-for-europe

Just a pity they aren't also holding it in a virtual world!

Book Launch: Realistic and Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence - 18th June 2026

 

Maggi and her son Zak are launching their new book on the Realistic and Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence at Blackfriars Hall in Oxford on 18th June 2026. As well as David and Maggi speakers will also include Kester Brewin is Associate Director at the Institute for the Future of Work, Professor Sarah Hayes from the University of Bath Spa and Dr Elaine Kasket, an expert on technology’s role within our work, individual psychology, and relationships.

If you're in, or can get to, Oxford, we'd love to see you there. 

IK2026: Bridging Realities - Brains, Language and Technology

 

Maggi and David are both at the IK2026 Interdisciplinary College by the Mohnesee in Germany this week. IK2026 explores the dynamic intersection of brains, language, and technology, where reality and fiction increasingly overlap and inform one another. This is being approached through three interconnected focus areas:

• Immersive Interfaces
• Language and Intelligent Agents
• Societies and Blurred Realities

Maggi is part of the 3-person leadership team for the event and David is delivering a 4 lecture course on virtual humans, the metaverse and the accidental digital immortal.

ITEC 2026 - From simulation to 'true' digital twins and virtual worlds: The next leap in the future operating environment

 

Andy is chairing and David is speaking on a panel at the ITEC 2026 military training conference and exhibition on digital twins and virtual worlds, talking about some of their thoughts on the military metaverse and digital human twins.  

GoogleAI Lab's Project Genie - Explorable 3D Virtual Worlds

 

On the face of it Google Deep Mind's new Project Genie looks quite awesome - you describe a world and a character to explore it (or upload images), it builds it and you explore it! Whilst the video looks great access is currently limited to Ultra subscribers in the USA, so we'll have to wait a while until we can try it.

More information on the Google Blog.

RP1 - Open Metaverse Platform

 

In The Metaverse: A Critical Introduction we talk a lot about the need for an open metaverse, and so its good to see that new company RP1 now has their synonymous open metaverse platform out into public beta. It has some really interesting ideas (like a galaxy scale co-ordinate system), and is able to support 100s, even 100s of avatars in the same space (and has bots doing that 24/7 to demo it). David has written a piece for Medium on it if you want to know more.

Cities in the Metaverse

 

Cities in the Metaverse, the fourth book in The Metaverse Series was published on 24th October 2025. The book has been written by a team from University College London's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) consisting of Professor Andrew Hudson-Smith, Professor Duncan Wilson and Dr Valerio Signorelli.

The book offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between urban environments and digital realms and examines:

• The size and shape of cities in the Metaverse
• Spatial computing and its impact on digital interaction
• Digital twins in urban planning and management
• Avatars and social dynamics in virtual spaces
• Economic models emerging in the Metaverse
• The influence of gaming on immersive digital landscapes
• The impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Metaverse
• Potential futures of digital habitation

Drawing from architecture, computer science, urban planning, geography, social studies, and economics, the authors provide a multidisciplinary analysis of how virtual cities are shaping our digital future. Using key case studies, they trace the evolution from early cyberspace concepts to current spatial computing technologies, offering insights into both historical context and future possibilities. The book addresses key questions about the opportunities and challenges presented by metaverse technologies, including issues of accessibility, creativity, and the future of humans and artificial intelligence co-existing, side by side, in digital spaces. It serves as a practical guide, equipping readers with the knowledge they need to navigate the future of urban life in virtual environments with a thought-provoking examination of how we might build, inhabit, and govern cities in the Metaverse.

The authors explore the concept of digital twins, demonstrating how these virtual replicas of physical spaces can revolutionise urban planning and management. They delve into the social aspects of the metaverse, examining how avatars shape our interactions and relationships in digital realms. Economic considerations are central to the book ethos, with an analysis of emerging models that often leverage blockchain technologies. The book addresses the challenges, potential pitfalls and ethical considerations in creating and inhabiting digital cities. At the same time, it takes a step back and examines already abandoned digital worlds, offering lessons from past attempts at creating virtual spaces. 

Essential reading for urban planners, geographers, economists, technologists, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of cities and digital interaction, Cities in the Metaverse provides a balanced, informed perspective on this rapidly evolving field.

The book is available from Routledge and all good booksellers.

Chatbots and Conversational AI: Past, Present and Future

 

This White Paper grew a bit as a wrote it, but it is essentially an update to my Virtual Humans book, covering and bringing together things I've learnt and thought and talked about since then, and also reflecting that we're now in the era of LLMs. 

Click here to download a free copy!

Digital Human Twins and the Military Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges (updated)

Following on from The Military Metaverse, Andy Fawkes and I have just had a paper published in Springer Nature's AI & Society on Digital Human Twins and the Military Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges. 

Behind the Springer paywall but a preview is available. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394534114_Digital_human_twins_and_the_military_metaverse_opportunities_and_challenges

[Update] I've done a short Medium post to explain more about the paper, and that also has a link to a free viewer for the whole paper.

August 2025 - Metaverse News and Links

 

Couple of interesting posts in the Guardian (and other media) this month:

- Digital resurrection: fascination and fear over the rise of the deathbot - https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/aug/10/artificial-intellligence-avatar-death-grief-digital-resurrection-fascination-deathbot

Deathbot seems an even more perjorative term than griefbot! What interests me though is what the bot means for the person making it more than what it means for those left behind. I'm writing something long form on this but looking the for the best way to publish it in due course.

- It’s missing something’: AGI, superintelligence and a race for the future -https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/09/its-missing-something-agi-superintelligence-and-a-race-for-the-future

In which it's reported that "Google’s AI unit on Tuesday outlined its next step to AGI by announcing an unreleased model that trains AIs to interact with a convincing simulation of the real world". Whilst it's not clear if this is real embodiment as we've described in Virtual Humans it's certainly a recognition of the greater issue that an AGI needs to exist in a "place" in order to gain all the awareness that AGI may need.

- Can an AI chatbot of Dr Karl change climate sceptics’ minds? He’s willing to give it a try - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/11/digital-dr-karl-kruszelnickic-ai-chatbot

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is dealing with 100s of questions about climate change so is making a Digital Dr Karl. It is trained on 40,000 PDFs.

New book - Just War Theory and Artificial Intelligence

 

Maggi and David have a new book out - and not in the Metaverse Series! The book is on Just War Theory and Artificial Intelligence, and in edited by Maggi and her colleague Dr Maria Power. David contributes a chapter on Wargaming and Just War Theory.

The book is available from Routledge, Amazon and all usual sources.

David is doing a presentation on his chapter at Georgetown University next week - we'll add the video link here after the event.

David Interviewed on Dublin City FM

 

David was interviewed on Monday by Jillian Godsil for Dublin City FM. The talk is mainly around virtual humans and digital amortality, but also touches on some metaverse issues.

You can find a link to the radio programme, and a text version of the interview at: https://jilliangodsil.com/talking-to-virtual-barry-inside-the-digital-mind-of-david-burden/

Sensay Hackathon Launch

 

On Monday David was on the panel for the launch of Sensay's AI Chatbot Hackathon, talking about his work on virtual humans, and touching on some of the issues around digital amortality and embedding bots in the metaverse. The Hackathon details - building new bot applications with the Sensay API - are at https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/sensay-connect/detail.

One of David's (many) summer projects is to try and use the API in order to use Sensay to power chatbots within virtual worlds. Any progress will be reported here.

New XRA Survey Finds 1 in 5 Teens Own a Virtual Reality Headset

 Interesting new survey out from the XR Association. Their blurb, and links,  below:

The XR Association's 2025 teen survey results give insights regarding teens' shifting opinions on the future of XR in their lives, the classroom and beyond. Titled "The Next Generation's Insights on Immersive Tech," the report found that 63% of teens express growing enthusiasm for XR technology, with VR maintaining a high level of favorability among them.

Serving as a follow-up to XRA's 2022 survey, this survey of 600 teens, ages 13 to 19, highlights the growing role of XR in their everyday lives.

View the Interactive Infographic Here

Military Metaverse Launch at DSET 2025

 

We're proud to announce that we'll be holding a physical launch for The Military Metaverse book as part of the DSET 2025 event, thanks to Tess Butler and the team at Ruddy Nice.

The first part will be Andy and David talking about the book at the DSET Industry Day on 25 Jun. And then during the physical conference and exhibition we'll be holding a prize draw for a signed copy of the book during an evening reception.

For more information and to sign up to DSET visit https://dset.co.uk/

 

Hard copies arrive!

Our author copies of the Military Metaverse arrived today! That makes #3 in the series, and I'm busy proofing what will probably be #4 or #5, we're now onto the books not written by Maggi or me.

The book is of course available from Routledge (20% discount til end Jun with code 25AFLY1), Amazon and other good booksellers.

Military Metaverse microworld open!

 

Our microworld on the Military Metaverse is now open and links into the existing space on the series in order to build out our Metaverse Series Microverse.

You can access the world directly from your browser and without creating an account at:

https://framevr.io/militarymetaverse

The space has an area for each chapter of the book, including 3D models and illustrations, and even an AI bot who (should) know all about the book.

You can also flip the space from being about the book to showcasing a couple of higher-rez models and a large floor map of Estonia which starts to give some idea of how such spaces could be used for planning or wargaming spaces.

If you'd like a tour of the space (or the original one for A Critical Introduction) then just email me at david.burden@daden.co.uk.

The Military Metaverse published today!

 

The Military Metaverse is published today! Details at https://metaverseseries.blogspot.com/p/the-military-metaverse.html. 

Sign up to our virtual launch on 7th May at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-military-metaverse-virtual-launch-tickets-1317151809519?aff=oddtdtcreator. 

Available from Amazon or Routledge as hardcopy or eBook, 20% discount at Routledge with the code 25AFLY1

This is the third book in the series and we have more in the production pipeline, so look out for more releases in the second half of 2025.

Military Metaverse Virtual Launch - in the Metaverse!

 

The virtual launch for the Military Metaverse book is being held in the Frame virtual world on Wed 7th May, from 1200 - 1900 GMT+1. It is a drop-in event, but we'll also hold formal tours/Q&A sessions at 1300 and 1700. You can sign up at:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-military-metaverse-virtual-launch-tickets-1317151809519?aff=oddtdtcreator

Andy and I will both be there to answer questions and to chat to you, and the space is also set up to email me when people come in, so even if we're not in-world when you arrive one of us should be in shortly afterwards.

We'll post the URL to the space up on the day (and email to attendees), and the space will then persist for the foreseeable future as a way to explore the book and for us to engage with our audience.

We hope to see you there.