If there’s one kind of AI that’s most relevant to gaming, it would be the so-called ‘world model.’ This is a system that can learn to simulate real-world things, which might allow for ‘easy’ creation of realistic games. And that seems to have been on Elon Musk’s mind, as his xAI has been hiring Nvidia specialists to work on just such AI models.
That’s according to the Financial Times, which cites “two people familiar with the plans” and says the two new hires, Zeeshan Patel and Ethan He, have experience working on world models. Apparently, the creations are intended to help create game environments.
That tracks, too, given Musk’s previous comments: “The XAI game studio will release a great AI-generated game before the end of next year.”
If these world models are put towards game world creation, I’m sure we’ll have a whole bunch of new AI slop to look forward to. I mean, just look at the aforementioned X post—Musk is responding to a clip of a game that looks absolutely atrocious.
I’m sure it will allow for lots of bespoke and custom game scenes, of course. We’ve seen hints of the capabilities on this front with Google DeepMind’s Genie 3, which allows you to interact with real-world environments of your choice, concocting some pretty impossible scenes.
This sounds fun, but it can hardly compare to a well-crafted—humanly-crafted—game with vision and purpose. At least, in this writer’s humble opinion.
Though it’s worth noting, xAI’s world models probably won’t be only for gaming. The Financial Times says that one of the sources claims they could be used in AI systems for robots.
This would make sense, especially in the context of autonomous vehicles. Nvidia’s own world model project, Nvidia Cosmos—and remember, the new xAI world model hires were from Nvidia—is used “to accelerate physical AI development for autonomous vehicles (AVs), robots, and video analytics AI agents.” Musk’s Robotaxi might be an obvious use for a world model: It would give AV software a safe way to learn without actually getting out there in the real world.
Let’s hope it’s just that, eh? I don’t know if I’ll be able to stomach fully AI-made games—certainly not the initial ones, which are bound to be the worst ones.
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