World Models
AI systems that learn how the physical world works, the foundation for robotics and simulation
What it is
A world model is a system that learns to predict the consequences of actions in an environment, essentially a simulatable representation of how the world works. Humans have rich world models: drop a phone, it falls; push a glass to the edge of a table, it will fall.
AI world models like Google's Genie 2 and Meta's V-JEPA learn these dynamics from video data, building internal representations that can predict future states given an action. This enables: planning by simulating possible futures, generating training data for robotics by running simulated rollouts, and video generation that respects physical plausibility.
World models are considered a key missing piece for achieving robust robotic manipulation and autonomous driving.