This could be the future of film. Instead of prompting where you don't know what the model will produce, you could use fine-grained motion controls to get the shot you are looking for. If you want to adjust the shot after, you could just checkpoint the model there, by taking a screenshot, and rerun. Crazy.
Reminds me of this [1] HN post from 9 months ago, where the author trained a neural network to do world emulation from video recordings of their local park — you can walk around in their interactive demo [2].
I don't have access to the DeepMind demo, but from the video it looks like it takes the idea up a notch.
(I don't know the exact lineage of these ideas, but a general observation is that it's a shame that it's the norm for blog posts / indie demos to not get cited.)
I was immediately struck when I looked down at just the boardwalk how similar it felt to being on LSD. I am continually astounded with how similar these systems end up seeming to how our brain works. May just be happy coincidences but I am pretty sold on there being true parallels that will only become more and more apparent.
I keep on repeating myself, but it feels like I'm living in the future.
Can't wait to hook this up to my old Oculus glasses and let Genie create a fully realistic sailing simulator for me, where I can train sailing with realistic conditions. On boats I'd love to sail.
If making games out of these simulations work, it't be the end for a lot of big studios, and might be the renaissance for small to one person game studios.
I have been confused for a long time why FB is not motivated enough to invest in world models, it IS the key to unblock their "metaverse" vision. And instead they let go Yann LeCun.
I have no idea why Google is wasting their time with this. Trying to hallucinate an entire world is a dead-end. There will never be enough predictability in the output for it to be cohesive in any meaningful way, by design. Why are they not training models to help write games instead? You wouldn't have to worry about permanence and consistency at all, since they would be enforced by the code, like all games today.
Look at how much prompting it takes to vibe code a prototype. And they want us to think we'll be able to prompt a whole world?
The actual breakthrough with Genie is being able to turn around and look back, and seeing the same scene that was there before. A few other labs have similar world simulators, but they all struggle badly with keeping coherence of things not in view. Hence why they always walk forwards and never look around.
They achieve that by not generating the scene you see, but a lens warped version of 360 degree view. So you turning the other way doesn't delete what's happening / generated on your back side. However I expect it to breakdown if you put a blocker in between and remove it. i.e. go behind a wall and come back, or enter and exit a building. Would be nice to play with.
Everyone here seems too caught up in the idea that Genie is the product, and that its purpose is to be a video game, movie, or VR environment.
That is not the goal.
The purpose of world models like Genie is to be the "imagination" of next-generation AI and robotics systems: a way for them to simulate the outcomes of potential actions in order to inform decisions.
I think you are anthropomorphising the AI too much. Imagination is inspired by reality, which AI does not have. Introducing a reality which the AI fully controls (looking beyond issues of vision and physics simulation) would only induce psychosis in the AI itself since false assumptions would only be amplified.
Compared to DeepMind's Genie 3 demo, this appears to have more morphing issues and less user interactivity with environmental consistency. Is this a stripped down version?
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 73.0 ms ] threadTry it in Google Labs: https://labs.google/projectgenie
(Project Genie is available to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US 18+.)
I don't have access to the DeepMind demo, but from the video it looks like it takes the idea up a notch.
(I don't know the exact lineage of these ideas, but a general observation is that it's a shame that it's the norm for blog posts / indie demos to not get cited.)
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43798757
[2] https://madebyoll.in/posts/world_emulation_via_dnn/demo/
If making games out of these simulations work, it't be the end for a lot of big studios, and might be the renaissance for small to one person game studios.
Look at how much prompting it takes to vibe code a prototype. And they want us to think we'll be able to prompt a whole world?
- https://youtu.be/15KtGNgpVnE?si=rgQ0PSRniRGcvN31&t=197 walking through various cities
- https://x.com/fofrAI/status/2016936855607136506 helicopter / flight sim
- https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016919922727850333 space station, https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016920340602278368 Dunkin' Donuts
- https://youtu.be/lALGud1Ynhc?si=10ERYyMFHiwL8rQ7&t=207 simulating a laptop computer, moving the mouse
- https://x.com/emollick/status/2016919989865840906 otter airline pilot with a duck on its head walking through a Rothko inspired airport
That is not the goal.
The purpose of world models like Genie is to be the "imagination" of next-generation AI and robotics systems: a way for them to simulate the outcomes of potential actions in order to inform decisions.
I think you are anthropomorphising the AI too much. Imagination is inspired by reality, which AI does not have. Introducing a reality which the AI fully controls (looking beyond issues of vision and physics simulation) would only induce psychosis in the AI itself since false assumptions would only be amplified.
Humanity goes into the box and it never comes back out. It's better in there than it is out there for 99% of the population.
I can't even fathom what it would be like for the future of simulation and physical world when it gets far more accurate and realistic.