Google's new AI world model spooked videogame investors, but its real potential remains unclear

Last week Google unveiled Project Genie – an AI model for creating interactive "worlds" – and gaming company stocks like Unity and Take-Two responded with a drop. However, if the decline in stock prices was indeed connected to the announcement, the reaction seems premature – anyone with even basic understanding of how games work realizes that Genie poses no threat to GTA 6 and other real games.

Google calls the current version Genie 3 an "experimental research prototype," though it sells access for $250 per month as part of its "AI Ultra" subscription. The model allows users to "create, explore and remix their own interactive worlds."

According to testers, the technology enables creating amusing simulations for exploring various worlds and locations, but there's no real gameplay to speak of. Moreover, the worlds created lack any originality whatsoever.

While the model appears more advanced than previous attempts, maintaining continuity in shown examples and simulating physics, it's easy to spot the expected bugs in consistency.

Even setting aside controversies around generative AI and imagining that models like Genie 3 work perfectly, questions remain about their practical application. Will users care about a scenario or story knowing there's no person behind it with their own ideas and desire to share something? Won't generating endless variations become boring after the novelty wears off?