Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI analysis group DeepMind, appeared to recommend Tuesday night that Veo 3, Google’s newest video-generating mannequin, may probably be used for video video games.
In response to a put up on X beseeching Google to “let me play a online game of my veo 3 movies already,” and asking, “playable world fashions wen?” Hassabis responded, “now wouldn’t that be one thing.”
On Wednesday morning, Logan Kilpatrick, lead product for Google’s AI Studio and Gemini API, chimed in with a reply: “🤐🤐🤐🤐”
Each posts from the Google executives are little greater than playful options, and a Google spokesperson informed TechCrunch the corporate had nothing to share for the time being. However constructing playable world fashions isn’t outdoors the realm of prospects for the tech big.
World fashions are completely different from video technology fashions. The previous simulates the dynamics of a real-world surroundings, which lets brokers predict how the world will evolve in response to their actions. Video gen fashions synthesize real looking video sequences.
Google has plans to show its multimodal basis mannequin, Gemini 2.5 Professional, right into a world mannequin that simulates facets of the human mind. In December, DeepMind unveiled Genie 2, a mannequin that may generate an “countless” number of playable worlds. The next month, we reported that Google was forming a brand new staff to work on AI fashions that may simulate the actual world.
Others are engaged on constructing world fashions — most notably, AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li. Li got here out of stealth final 12 months with World Labs, a startup that has constructed its personal AI system that generates video game-like, 3D scenes from a single picture.
Veo 3, which continues to be in public preview, can create video in addition to audio to associate with clips — something from speech to soundtracks. Whereas Veo 3 creates real looking actions by simulating real-world physics, it isn’t fairly a world mannequin but. As a substitute, it may very well be used for cinematic storytelling in video games, like cutscenes, trailers, and narrative prototyping
The mannequin can also be nonetheless a “passive output” generative mannequin, and it (or a future Veo technology) would wish to shift to a simulator that’s extra lively, interactive, and predictive.
However the actual problem with online game manufacturing isn’t simply spectacular visuals; it’s real-time, constant, and controllable simulation. That’s why it’d make sense to see Google take a hybrid strategy that leverages Veo and Genie sooner or later, ought to it pursue online game or playable world growth.
Google may discover itself competing with Microsoft, State of affairs, Runway, Pika and, ultimately, OpenAI’s video-generating mannequin Sora.
Given Google’s deliberate strikes on the earth fashions house and its popularity for utilizing its deep pockets and distribution muscle to steamroll rivals, rivals on this house could be clever to maintain an in depth watch.