MIT Technology Review AI reporting · 14h ago · 2/5
World models ↗
World models—AI systems that represent and simulate external environments—are gaining prominence as researchers seek to overcome limitations of large language models for robotics and physical-world tasks. Recent developments from Google DeepMind, Stanford's World Labs, and others show progress in generating interactive 3D virtual environments from text and images, with potential applications in robotics, game design, and VR. Proponents argue that integrating world models into intelligent agents could enable more robust AI systems capable of predicting action consequences and making better decisions in the physical world.
Building an AI system that can compose a novel or code an app is far easier than developing one that can fold laundry or navigate a city street.
Language models trained on a database of simulated New York City taxi trips can provide effective directions—unless the model is forced to take occasional detours, in which case it fails completely.