Google is assembling a new team to build ‘world models’ for games and robotics

Google DeepMind is creating a dedicated artificial intelligence team focused on developing “world models” – AI systems that can simulate physical environments – under the leadership of former OpenAI executive Tim Brooks.

Key development: Google DeepMind is launching a new initiative to build AI models capable of simulating real-world physical environments, marking a significant expansion of its artificial intelligence capabilities.

• The team will be led by Tim Brooks, who previously co-led OpenAI’s Sora project before joining DeepMind in October 2023
• The project aims to create real-time interactive environments for video games and movies, as well as training scenarios for robots
• DeepMind is actively recruiting research engineers and scientists to tackle challenges in large-scale training and data curation

Technical scope: World models represent an emerging frontier in AI technology that combines visual simulation with complex physical modeling to create interactive virtual environments.

• The initiative will focus on integrating these models with multimodal language systems
• Researchers will work on solving problems related to training at massive scale
• The technology will support visual reasoning, simulation, and planning for embodied agents

Strategic context: This initiative aligns with Google’s broader ambition to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) before its competitors.

• DeepMind explicitly states that scaling pretraining on video and multimodal data is “critical” to achieving AGI
• The project will complement existing Google AI initiatives, including Gemini AI models, Veo video generator, and Genie
• OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has recently claimed progress toward AGI, intensifying competition in this space

Competitive landscape: Several major players are already developing similar technologies, placing pressure on Google to accelerate its efforts.

• Nvidia has established its Cosmos platform for physical AI and autonomous vehicle development
• World Labs, founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, is actively working in this space
• The technology could have significant implications for industries ranging from entertainment to robotics

Future implications: While Google’s entry into world modeling shows promise, the company faces significant technical and competitive challenges in achieving its AGI objectives, particularly given the head start of established players in the field.