Will GenAI and World Models Give the Metaverse a Second Life-

Metaverse - envisioned as a persistent, interoperable, and economically active successor to the mobile internet-has attracted extraordinary investment, yet remains, as of 2026, a collection of incompatible platforms. Unlike 5G, governed end-to-end by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), or Wi-Fi, specified through the IEEE 802.11 Working Group, metaverse standardization is distributed across multiple Standards Development Organizations, with no single body producing unified specifications. Meanwhile, generative 3D (Gen3D) technologies and AI world models are dissolving the content-creation bottleneck that has historically constrained the richness of virtual worlds. This article surveys the key features a true metaverse requires, assesses the standardization status at each layer, and examines how these AI advances are reshaping both the opportunity and the urgency.