(Almost) Forgotten Story: Linden Lab Accused of Using AI For Ads In Early 2025

 

Well, this news story could be called "better late than never."  

 

 In late February 2025, it was revealed on the SL forums that Linden Lab was using AI to make an ad. The reaction from the poster, "It looks like a bad ad for an AI chatbot app. SL has fantastic creators and content, why use AI generated video?" What followed were posts by upset and confused people, "Why would the Lab do this?  This isn't representative of SL AT ALL.  New users gonna log in with a default Ruth & duck walk & log right back out cause that video is bait & switch."especially since Linden Lab could, and was, doing proposed ads done entirely within Second Life. 

 

 Hamlet Au ended up talking to Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager. Oberwager responded that the intention was to use AI only for testing ads, and expressed surprised that they'd somehow leaked out and were seen by the residents. Hamlet would guess the Lab never asked residents for help thinking it would take too long to get permissions. 

 

Some people in the forums reacted with skepticism, "Good grief. Tell me you don't know how A/B testing works without telling me you don't know how A/B testing works, especially with FB ads." "They have no idea what the coffee they make tastes like. They will fail to find the magic bullet because they refuse to really taste the coffee." "As a marketer in RL I am sitting here shaking my head." But others were more hopeful, "Going by the article of Hamlet, it seems they did understand the mistake they made and hopefully will be correcting it." Later comments were a discussion about what kind of advertising might work. But there didn't seem to be any general agreement. 

 

Oberwager would admit of the controversy, "I f**ked this one up," and say to any residents reading, "Send me videos. Look at these bad ads [we made], and make them better."

 

* * * * *

 

On a personal note, sorry for missing this story. Thankfully it doesn't happen often. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

Second Life's Monthy Active Users Up From 600,000 to 620,000

 

In a recent article in New World Notes, Hamlet AU reported that Brad Oberwager, the head of Linden Lab, stated that the number of monthly active users had gone up from about 600,000 in October to 620,000. 

 

In an October interview Oberwager admitted that Second Life's monthly active users had dropped to 500,000 in 2024. 

 

Oberwager would go on to say they planned on doing things that would encourage more people to use the virtual world more often, such as hiring a Vice President of Engineering. 

 

Source: New World Notes

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Interview With Oberwager Reveals Reasons For Recent Layoffs At Lab

 

 Last month, Alexa Linden was laid off from Linden Lab, and there were stories going around that she wasn't the only one. In a recent interview Wagner Au conducted with Brad Oberwager, the head of Second Life, it was confirmed. 

 

At one point, Wagner asked Oberwager the reasons for the layoffs. Oberwager answered that this was in response to his conclusion that the Lab's support for it's content creators and residents was "antiquated" and lacking, "what happened was, we made changes across the whole organization, and some people got promoted, some people got moved into different parts of the organization, and some people,  we had to say goodbye to some people. And that's always unfortunate, especially when it’s folks that have been around for a long time. That's really tough"

 

Besides an emphasis on Engineering, Oberwager stated they were putting new energy in customer support, "We basically blew up all the formal titles and structure in how we provide support, and we formed two new teams...Resident success and Trust & Safety. And we're going to pour all of our energy into those two groups in terms of supporting [them]. So what's happened over time is Trust & Safety continues to become more important, not less… And so we’ve created this brand new Trust & Safety team that has tremendous autonomy and a very high bar of success."

For the rest of the interview, Click Here. 

 

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Second Life Community Roundtable Meeting"

 

 

 For those who missed the Community Roundtable Meeting on Monday, here's a recording made by Pantera Polnocy. The Newser will have a review of it soon.

Lab Gab: Oberwolf Explains The Sale of Tilia

 

 

 In a special episode of Lab Gab on Friday April 26, Strawberry Linden interviewed Oberwolf Linden, the Executive Chairman of Linden Lab, about the recent announcement that Linden Lab was selling Tilia. 

So why is the Lab selling Tilia? In short, money. He explained it was "costing us millions and millions of dollars to run it." While bringing in other online places brought in some revenue, it wasn't enough to cover it's costs. So he was looking for someone to buy it, under some conditions, "The number one criteria was would they continue to support Second Life. ... That was more important than anything else I looked at. The second criteria was what could that company bring to Tilia that we could bring to Second Life." He was soon introduced to the CEO of Thunes, and in just twenty one days, "which is lightning fast and shows a few things," they were able to make a deal. It still needs Federal approval, which could take some time. 

More information is in the Youtube.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

Breaking News: Linden Lab's Executive Chairman Makes Statement on Ageplay Accusations

 

This afternoon, there was an announcement from Linden Lab's Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager, concerning some accusations that some Lindens and Moles were engaged in ageplay (virtual roleplay of child sex abuse). He stated that the charges are being taken very seriously, and while nothing's been found yet, the investigation is continuing to make double sure.

I want to take this opportunity to speak directly to the Second Life community. Thank you for being part of this wonderful world and giving us the time to carefully assess our situation after we became the subject of a blog post that has the potential to cause harm to our dedicated community members and the virtual world platform that so many people call “home.” 

The post contains a complex mix of accusations regarding Second Life, and it questions our strong dedication to maintaining a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all members of the Second Life community.

Our Response to the Allegations

At the heart of the blog post were unsettling accusations about sexualized, virtual avatar ageplay, including alleged violations of our community guidelines. I want to be clear: we have a zero-tolerance policy against sexualized ageplay. The safety and integrity of the Second Life platform are paramount to us, especially concerning the protection of minors. 

We will continue to enforce our existing governance policies and community standards and we are proud of our collaboration with law enforcement and organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat child exploitation. These efforts underscore our commitment to a safe online environment. 

With that said, I want to acknowledge that we can do better; this has been a harsh wake-up call for us that we need to take tangible actions to improve Second Life’s governance policies and protective features that benefit the entire community.

Our Actions Moving Forward

I promise you that we are taking this very seriously. Very. Full stop. 

I promise we hear you. We know you're angry and you're confused. We are working to do our best to resolve your concerns and restore your trust in us. These are complicated issues and we want to do things right. We will make mistakes along the way. I wish I could say we will not, but we will. 

As owner of Linden Lab, I have initiated a thorough investigation, both internally and with external partners, to review whether or not there have been any violations of our company and community policies by employees, contractors, or community members. While early preliminary internal investigations suggest that some of the accusations are unfounded, I want to make sure that we get additional investigative support externally to ensure that the process is fair and thorough.

One of our top priorities has been to ensure the safety of our residents, moles, employees, and families. There are real people behind the avatars, and it has been important to confirm that nobody was in actual physical danger. 

Additionally, I am taking proactive steps to review and revamp many of our policies, including a comprehensive review of our Community Standards, Content Guidelines, and Ageplay Policy. Any violation detected will be met with swift enforcement actions to protect our community. We’ll be sharing these revised policies in the coming weeks and, critically, we are turning to the community to help us shape the future of how governance operates within Second Life. 

Our Commitment to You

Second Life remains a vibrant platform for expression, creativity, and connection. I and the Second Life team are deeply committed to protecting our community and ensuring that Second Life continues to be a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space for everyone. Your trust is our priority, and we pledge to work tirelessly to maintain and enhance the integrity of our virtual world.

I appreciate the patience and support of our community as we navigate this challenge. Together, we will emerge stronger and more united in our mission to build the best possible virtual world experience.

 

The accusations were made from an anonymous account on a blog in late February.  The Newser reported on March that the Lab was starting to investigate them. 

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

 

Bixyl Shuftan

More on Linden Lab's Deal With JP Morgan And Tilia (News and Commentary)

 

 On Tuesday, Linden Lab announced that Tilia had "secured a new strategic investment from J.P. Morgan." Also, "Tilia is also working with J.P. Morgan Payments to further enhance Tilia’s current capabilities throughout its processing platform including providing increased payment and payout methods, expanding pay-out currencies and support services." So just what does this mean?

 

Well, it's a little more complicated than to just call it a deal between Linden Lab and JP Morgan.

To begin with, Tilia was created over three years ago in 2019, announced in July and going active in August. The service had been created to avoid future problems with the US Government concerning changing Linden dollars for real-world currency. At first, only those cashing out Linden dollars into real world currency had to keep it in mind. In May 2020, it was expanded to cover both the buying and selling of Linden dollars. Following Linden Lab being bought up by the Waterfield group, Tilia would be involved with not just Second Life transactions, but other places online, "virtual worlds and metaverses, online games, and NFT marketplaces" such as Upland.

So why the deal? Well, the Waterfield Network's motivations are easy to understand: quick cash in exchange for sharing further profits. In the statement from Tilia, Brad Oberwager, whose position at the service was Executive Chairman, stated, "Virtual economies represent a huge financial opportunity particularly for game, app and virtual world developers. J.P. Morgan Payments, a worldwide leader and recognized innovator in payments, is the right partner as we continue to expand capabilities in line with these rapidly growing creator-based economies."

JP Morgan's motivations? As a bank, obviously their motivation is to make money, in this case over the long term. But considering Second Life's golden age was over a decade ago, why would they be interested in this kind of deal now? In the statement from Tilia, the representative from JP Morgan stated, “We believe that contextualized commerce - such as virtual economies within games and virtual worlds - is an area perfectly positioned for innovative payments solutions to play a critical role in the coming years." He would call Tilia, "a market leading provider of software gaming payments tools, to develop solutions for these new and exciting marketplaces.”

In the Second Life forums, there was a thread with two news articles about the deal on the first page, from Forbes and Venturebeat. The Forbes article called Oberwager the acting CEO of Linden Lab. The Venturebeat one stated that Tilia would no longer be under Linden Lab, but now it's own company under the Waterfield Network. Tilia would use the money from JP Morgan "to expand its business and go into new markets." So it seems Linden Lab probably won't be getting much of the money, at least not directly. The article would say the deal took about a year to negotiate. Oberwager was quoted as saying, “They invested in us and they solidified a really big partnership. We’re like the tip of the spear for the metaverse. They’re a good partner with a lot of credibility.”

He would go on to say, “This is a good thing when creators can make money. There are people around the world who make their living by building things in Second Life. ... Here’s why I think it’s so important,” Oberwager said. “These universes are social economies. If you don’t allow people to make money, if you don’t allow this economy to happen, if you don’t support creators, you’re going to have to rely on an advertising model to make your world work. That is a disaster. That would be the worst thing that could hit our society — an advertising-based metaverse.” He felt such a virtual universe would operate on companies tracking people so they could better target ads, "That's not a world we want to live in."

There is some irony in the Tilia deal. It was a year ago that Facebook announced it was going to make a major effort into virtual worlds, saying it would become the "Metaverse," even changing it's name to Meta. It's owner Mark Zuckerberg was acting like Second Life never existed. Since then, things have not gone well for Facebook/Meta. The company has lost a LOT of money and investor confidence shaky, "some analysts say that they aren’t even sure what Facebook’s core business is anymore — or if it even has one." Horizon has also performed far short of expectations. Despite Facebook's huge base of users, a Wall Street Journal article reported the number of people using Horizon has been much smaller than Second Life, with a smaller ratio of women to men, with reports of some of the men behaving badly despite the lack of legs on avatars (while in SL about 80% of the entrepreneurs are women according to Oberwager), and most areas never being visited by anyone other than their creators.

With Horizons and Facebook/Meta faltering while Second Life is flourishing and indirectly attracting attention of the largest bank in America through Tilia, Linden Lab has proven not only can it outdo Zuckerberg with virtual worlds, but also on attracting big money investors. While "The Zuck" can pretend our virtual world doesn't exist, in private he sure can't deny we do.

Sources: Forbes, Venturebeat, Petapixel, Ryan Schulta/Wall Street Journal
 

Bixyl Shuftan

News And Commentary: Questions Raised About Horizon Following Zuckerburg's Comments, Announcement of Creator Fees

 

It's no secret that many Second Life users roll their eyes at Linden Lab a lot. But can anyone else do a better job at developing a virtual world. The biggest company gicing it a try is Facebook/Meta, with it's Horizons. This virtual world has already been ridiculed for having avatars with nothing below the waist. But certain comments by the company founder plus how much of a cut it plans to take from content creators is making it look worse.

Read more in Other Grinds, MMOs, and Games.

SL Video: Second Life's Lab Gab With Oberwolf and Philip

 

(Click here if the video does not play)

Yesterday on Monday January 31, the special episode of Lab Gab with Philip and Oberwolf Linden (Philip Rosedale and Bradford Oberwager), interviewed by Strawberry Linden, aired. The Newser will have an article about the interview soon. For now, check the video out for yourselves.
 

Lab Gab Interview With Oberwolf Linden (Bradford Oberwager)

 

During the course of the Second Life Birthday, a number of Lindens were interviewed at both the "Lab Gab" and the "Meet the Lindens" events. But there was one whom was making his first public appearance inworld: Oberwolf Linden, aka Bradford Oberwager, the Executive Chairman of Linden Lab, and one of the two people leading the acquisition of the company last year. Strawberry Linden had a number of questions for him, such as how did he find out about Second Life, what were his impressions of it, what experiences did he have inworld, and what were his plans?
 
Read the article in People.