🟣 SC 🌀 DTech
World models are AI systems that accurately simulate physical reality. How objects move and collide, for example, or how light behaves, or liquid flows. Google DeepMind recently released the astonishing new Genie 3 model; Demis Hassabis calls world models a crucial part of anything we can call true AGI. OpenAI is rumoured to be building a rival. Yann LeCun — Meta's AI chief for years — has left the company to launch his own world model startup.
Read more🟣 SC
Google has introduced one of the most significant updates to Google Maps in more than a decade. The update brings two major features: Ask Maps, an AI-powered conversational assistant, and Immersive Navigation, a new 3D navigation system designed to make directions clearer and more intuitive. Together, these technologies aim to transform Google Maps from a simple navigation tool into a smarter travel and exploration platform powered by artificial intelligence.
Read more🟣 SC
Introducing Wonder 3D, a new generative AI model in Autodesk Flow Studio – built to help you move from imagination to 3D faster than ever.
You can now quickly generate 3D characters or objects—from a simple text prompt or a reference image. Then refine, remix, and reuse them across your projects. Plus, everything stays flexible, so you can create quickly, iterate confidently, and move your work seamlessly into 3D pipelines, game engines, or 3D printing software.
Read more🟣 SC 🔵 FS
A few months back Altera launched Project Sid (its name is a hat tip to Sid Meier, the creator of the iconic Civilisation video game). They poured 1,000 autonomous AI agents into a Minecraft world, and sat back to watch what unfolded.
Altera calls this world, ‘the first agent-based civilisation’. Yang and his colleagues watched as the agents learned to harness the natural resources around them, developed their own economy, and even evolved a culture and religion.
Read more🌀 DTech 🟣 SC
Prices will start from 1,899 yuan ($268.25) for the headset that will be powered by Alibaba's Qwen AI model and app. Unlike other headsets made by the likes of Meta, the Quark glasses look like regular eyewear, with a black plastic frame. Alibaba said the glasses would be deeply integrated with its apps, including Alipay and its shopping site Taobao, with wearers able to use them for tasks such as on-the-go translation and instant price recognition.
Read more🟣 SC
Today, we’re introducing WorldGen: a state-of-the-art end-to-end system for generating interactive and navigable 3D worlds from a single text prompt. WorldGen is built on a combination of procedural reasoning, diffusion-based 3D generation, and object-aware scene decomposition. The result is geometrically consistent, visually rich, and render-efficient 3D worlds for gaming, simulation, and immersive social environments.
Read more🟣 SC
DeepMind, Google’s AI research lab, announced the release of Genie 3, a new AI system capable of generating interactive virtual environments in real-time—and bringing us one step closer to the Holodeck.
Read more🟣 SC 🌀 DTech
In 2024, Qatar Airways, a frequent winner of the World’s Best Airline award, released its AI “social media ambassador,” Sama (meaning “sky” in Arabic), at the travel conference IBT Berlin. At the start of 2025, Sama was brought to the public with the Instagram profile @SamaOnTheMove. The word “human” comes up more times than you would probably guess for a release about an AI product.
Read more🟣 SC 🔵 FS
It’s called Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People. Not a catchy title. But I believe this research will eventually change the world. That’s why I’ve chosen it as the subject of this first in my new series of weekly postcards.
The researcher in question is Joon Sung Park; he’s a PhD student at Stanford University.
He and his team interviewed 1,052 people. They asked them to speak for two hours about themselves and their everyday lives, beliefs and values.
Read more🔘 Arch 🟣 SC 🟠 Des-fi 🔵 FS
IDEO decided to take the 100+ stakeholders through a futuring process designed to help them envision desired futures that might feel out of reach based on their day-to-day experience. As part of this, the team wanted to create a tangible visual experience that felt both nostalgic and forward-looking. And so we looked to the retrofuturism of the View-Master.
Read more