I just read a great book by William Shatner and Chip Walter called “I’m Working on That”. In the book, our favorite Star Fleet Captain takes us on a whirlwind tour of the future, trying to find the people who are building out technology that either matches or exceeds what the show explored. One of the most interesting chapters was about the Holodeck and suffice it to say it won’t be easy to build. But even if we never achieve a fully functional Holodeck or Metaverse we could soon have a way to explore virtual worlds thanks to Google’s Genie 3.
Tom’s Guide explains:
“Generative AI has come a long way. In the past few years, we have learned to generate images, poems, videos, and even entire apps and websites. However, the next wave could be the most impressive. Google DeepMind recently released its latest tool, Genie 3. Google describes this as a ‘world model.’ What that means more specifically is a tool that can generate entire digital worlds from a single prompt.
Imagine being able to create an entire explorable world from a single prompt. This could change the world of gaming, education, movies, and more…
Genie, or its less catchy name, Generative Interactive Environments, is a world model tool that lets a user generate and then explore virtual worlds.
It is trained on internet videos, and, like other generative AI tools, simply requires a worded prompt to get started.
The first version of Genie was limited. It could generate worlds and allowed for frame-by-frame interaction from the user. However, it was primarily operating in 2D game-like environments and didn’t offer anywhere near the quality that is available now.
Then, Deepmind came out with Genie 2. It scaled the tool to offer immersive 3D environments, improved control and a noticeable improvement in real-world physics and graphics.
Now, Genie 3 has gone a step further. Worlds are generated at 720p resolution and play in 24 frames per second and a huge amount of work has gone into making the explorable worlds even more interactive.”
In theory, you can add objects as you go along and adjust the weather on the fly. And best of all the environments and characters you interact with will actually be based on real world physics and mimic real life plant and animal behavior.
There are still limitations in terms of how much the model can remember. Since you model is regenerating on the fly as you move around your original starting point may fall apart. It may be better to limit your exploration for now to a smaller area such as a house instead of an entire world. But you can imagine that future iterations of Genie will just get better and better. Remembering more and enabling you to travel farther into virtual worlds that will get more and more interactive and look more and more realistic.
It may not be the Holodeck, but it could be the next best thing. A way for us to utilize our imaginations to the fullest. Creating entire worlds that we can easily explore from single prompts. Giving us an immersive entertainment option that could compete with video games, movies and books for our free time. And possibly surpassing them all. Making all our wishes come true. Just like a genie.
Is Genie 3 the Greatest Idea Ever?