People care because this technology was hyped up as the thing that will replace all workers. It was announced as both our salvation and our doom. That's why it has a geopolitical dimension.

All of this is fucking bullshit of course lol. Big Tech was out of ideas - the Metaverse is the bodily (or virtual?) manifestation of the idea drought that Silicon Valley was going though, and suddendly they get their hands on something that - on a glance - looks like intelligence.

This is the largest scam the world has ever seen, and we all will pay for it - because our leadership wouldn't listen when critics said that the Emperor had no clothes on.