Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

blog.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 347 posts

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#21

Post by bdbdbdb »

0xcb0 wrote: post #7

I keep on repeating myself, but it feels like I'm living in the future. Can't wait to hook this up to my old Oculus glasses and let Genie create a fully realistic sailing simulator for me, where I can train sailing with realistic conditions. On boats I'd love to sail. If making games out of these simulations work, it't be the end for a lot of big studios, and might be the renaissance for small to one person game stud…

It's very impressive tech but subject to the same limitations as other generative AI: Inconsistency, inaccurate physics, limited time, lag, massively expensive computation.

You COULD create a sailing sim but after ten minutes you might be walking on water, or in the bath, and it would use more power than a small ferry.

There's no way this tech can run on a PS5 or anything close to it.

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#23

Post by [deleted] »

0xcb0 wrote: post #7

I keep on repeating myself, but it feels like I'm living in the future. Can't wait to hook this up to my old Oculus glasses and let Genie create a fully realistic sailing simulator for me, where I can train sailing with realistic conditions. On boats I'd love to sail. If making games out of these simulations work, it't be the end for a lot of big studios, and might be the renaissance for small to one person game stud…

[deleted]

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#24

Post by ziofill »

bdbdbdb wrote: post #21
0xcb0 wrote: post #7

I keep on repeating myself, but it feels like I'm living in the future. Can't wait to hook this up to my old Oculus glasses and let Genie create a fully realistic sailing simulator for me, where I can train sailing with realistic conditions. On boats I'd love to sail. If making games out of these simulations work, it't be the end for a lot of big studios, and might be the renaissance for small to one person game stud…

It's very impressive tech but subject to the same limitations as other generative AI: Inconsistency, inaccurate physics, limited time, lag, massively expensive computation. You COULD create a sailing sim but after ten minutes you might be walking on water, or in the bath, and it would use more power than a small ferry. There's no way this tech can run on a PS5 or anything close to it.

You raise good points, but I think the “it’s not good enough” stance won’t last for long.

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#25

Post by phailhaus »

sy26 wrote: post #10

I have been confused for a long time why FB is not motivated enough to invest in world models, it IS the key to unblock their "metaverse" vision. And instead they let go Yann LeCun.

Most people don't like putting on VR headsets, no matter what the content is. It just never broke out of the tech enthusiast niche.

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#26

Post by observationist »

sy26 wrote: post #10

I have been confused for a long time why FB is not motivated enough to invest in world models, it IS the key to unblock their "metaverse" vision. And instead they let go Yann LeCun.

LeCun wasn't producing results. He was obstinate and insistent on his own theories and ideas which weren't, and possibly aren't, going anywhere. He refused to engage with LLMs and compete in the market that exists, and spent all his effort and energy on unproven ideas and research, which split the company's mission and competitiveness. They lost their place as one of the top 4 AI companies, and are now a full generation behind, in part due to the split efforts and lack of enthusiastic participation by all the Meta AI team. If you look at the chaos and churn at the highest levels across the industry, there's not a lot of room for mission creep by leadership, and LeCun thoroughly demonstrated he wasn't suited for the mission desired by Meta.

I think he's lucky he got out with his reputation relatively intact.

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#27

Post by phailhaus »

I have no idea why Google is wasting their time with this. Trying to hallucinate an entire world is a dead-end. There will never be enough predictability in the output for it to be cohesive in any meaningful way, by design. Why are they not training models to help write games instead? You wouldn't have to worry about permanence and consistency at all, since they would be enforced by the code, like all games today.

Look at how much prompting it takes to vibe code a prototype. And they want us to think we'll be able to prompt a whole world?

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#28

Post by ollin »

Really great to see this released! Some interesting videos from early-access users:

- https://youtu.be/15KtGNgpVnE?si=rgQ0PSRniRGcvN31&t=197 walking through various cities

- https://x.com/fofrAI/status/2016936855607136506 helicopter / flight sim

- https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016919922727850333 space station, https://x.com/venturetwins/status/2016920340602278368 Dunkin' Donuts

- https://youtu.be/lALGud1Ynhc?si=10ERYyMFHiwL8rQ7&t=207 simulating a laptop computer, moving the mouse

- https://x.com/emollick/status/2016919989865840906 otter airline pilot with a duck on its head walking through a Rothko inspired airport

Re: Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

#30

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

observationist wrote: post #26
sy26 wrote: post #10

I have been confused for a long time why FB is not motivated enough to invest in world models, it IS the key to unblock their "metaverse" vision. And instead they let go Yann LeCun.

LeCun wasn't producing results. He was obstinate and insistent on his own theories and ideas which weren't, and possibly aren't, going anywhere. He refused to engage with LLMs and compete in the market that exists, and spent all his effort and energy on unproven ideas and research, which split the company's mission and competitiveness. They lost their place as one of the top 4 AI companies, and are now a full generat…

Were you there or just an attentive outsider?
Post reply on HN