As the Metaverse continues to grow, the need for efficient communication and intelligent content generation becomes increasingly important. Semantic communication focuses on conveying meaning and understanding from user inputs, while AI-Generated Content utilizes artificial intelligence to create digital content and experiences. Integrated Semantic Communication and AI-Generated Content (ISGC) has attracted a lot of attentions recently, which transfers semantic information from user inputs, generates digital content, and renders graphics for Metaverse. In this paper, we introduce a unified framework that captures ISGC two primary benefits, including integration gain for optimized resource allocation and coordination gain for goal-oriented high-quality content generation to improve immersion from both communication and content perspectives. We also classify existing ISGC solutions, analyze the major components of ISGC, and present several use cases. We then construct a case study based on the diffusion model to identify an optimal resource allocation strategy for performing semantic extraction, content generation, and graphic rendering in the Metaverse. Finally, we discuss several open research issues, encouraging further exploring the potential of ISGC and its related applications in the Metaverse.

翻译：随着元宇宙的持续发展，高效通信与智能内容生成的需求日益凸显。语义通信专注于从用户输入中传递含义与理解，而人工智能生成内容则利用人工智能创建数字内容与体验。集成语义通信与人工智能生成内容（ISGC）近年来备受关注，它能够传输用户输入的语义信息、生成数字内容并为元宇宙渲染图形。本文提出一个统一框架，揭示ISGC的两大核心优势：即通过优化资源分配实现集成增益，以及通过面向目标的高质量内容生成实现协调增益，从而从通信与内容两个维度提升沉浸感。我们还对现有ISGC方案进行分类，分析ISGC的主要组成部分，并展示若干应用案例。接着，我们基于扩散模型构建案例研究，以确定在元宇宙中执行语义提取、内容生成与图形渲染的最优资源分配策略。最后，我们讨论若干开放性研究问题，以期进一步探索ISGC及其相关应用在元宇宙中的潜力。