Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

by meetpateltech on 1/29/2026, 5:02:39 PM

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/project-genie/

Comments

by: in-silico

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.

1/29/2026, 6:51:56 PM

by: ollin

Really great to see this released! Some interesting videos from early-access users:- <a href="https://youtu.be/15KtGNgpVnE?si=rgQ0PSRniRGcvN31&t=197" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/15KtGNgpVnE?si=rgQ0PSRniRGcvN31&t=197</a> walking through various cities- <a href="https://x.com/fofrAI/status/2016936855607136506" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/fofrAI/status/2016936855607136506</a> helicopter / flight sim- <a href="https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016919922727850333" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016919922727850333</a> space station, <a href="https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016920340602278368" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016920340602278368</a> Dunkin' Donuts- <a href="https://youtu.be/lALGud1Ynhc?si=10ERYyMFHiwL8rQ7&t=207" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/lALGud1Ynhc?si=10ERYyMFHiwL8rQ7&t=207</a> simulating a laptop computer, moving the mouse- <a href="https://x.com/emollick/status/2016919989865840906" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/emollick/status/2016919989865840906</a> otter airline pilot with a duck on its head walking through a Rothko inspired airport

1/29/2026, 6:18:46 PM

by: speak_on

Is this a stripped down version of DeepMind's Genie 3? This release seems to have far more morphing issues and I dind't see the same level of user interactivity with environmental consistency that DeepMind demoed.

1/29/2026, 8:14:30 PM

by: WarmWash

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.

1/29/2026, 6:32:01 PM

by: krunck

The more of this I see the more I want to spend time away from screens and doing those things I love to do in the real world.

1/29/2026, 6:45:25 PM

by: sy26

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.

1/29/2026, 5:55:31 PM

by: montebicyclelo

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.)[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43798757">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43798757</a>[2] <a href="https://madebyoll.in/posts/world_emulation_via_dnn/demo/" rel="nofollow">https://madebyoll.in/posts/world_emulation_via_dnn/demo/</a>

1/29/2026, 5:45:52 PM

by: phailhaus

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?

1/29/2026, 6:17:19 PM

by: 0xcb0

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.

1/29/2026, 5:48:03 PM

by: nickandbro

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.

1/29/2026, 5:35:23 PM

by: ofrzeta

I don't know ... it's impressive and all but the result always looks kind of dead.

1/29/2026, 6:09:13 PM

by: ge96

Damn that was crazy the picture of the tabletop setup/cardboard robot and it becomes 3D interactive.

1/29/2026, 6:21:58 PM

by: mosquitobiten

Every character goes forward only, permanence is still out of reach apparently.

1/29/2026, 5:41:33 PM

by: meetpateltech

Google Deepmind Page: <a href="https://deepmind.google/models/genie/" rel="nofollow">https://deepmind.google/models/genie/</a>Try it in Google Labs: <a href="https://labs.google/projectgenie" rel="nofollow">https://labs.google/projectgenie</a>(Project Genie is available to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US 18+.)

1/29/2026, 5:08:07 PM

by: srameshc

What’s the endgame here? For a small gaming studio, what are the actual implications?

1/29/2026, 5:51:52 PM

by: RivieraKid

This would be really cool if polished and integrated with VR.

1/29/2026, 5:58:54 PM

by: adventured

This is as good of a place to mark it as any.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.

1/29/2026, 7:30:30 PM

by: analog8374

If creating an infinite world is so trivially easy (relatively speaking) then occam suggests that this world is generated.

1/29/2026, 7:20:32 PM

by: moohaad

everyone will make his own game now

1/29/2026, 6:43:16 PM

by: anxtyinmgmt

Demis stays cooking

1/29/2026, 5:56:34 PM

by: JaiRathore

I now believe we live in a simulation

1/29/2026, 6:44:35 PM

by: TacoCommander

[dead]

1/29/2026, 7:50:45 PM

by: rationalfaith