Google’s new AI model is a fun playground, but it threatens to make game developers obsolete

Whatever the public sentiment towards modern generative AI models may be, they’re here to stay, and they’re only getting better at their jobs. Google has just announced its new Genie 3 AI model, which can create stunning interactive worlds with just a simple prompt.

You’re probably aware of generating images with text prompts, and you’ve likely seen video generation AI models gaining popularity too. Genie 3, however, generates an entire environment where you can move around, as if you were playing a video game.



Compared to its predecessors, Genie 3 can create hyperrealistic environments which would take seasoned game developers weeks to complete. The possibilities are endless: from a robot exploring a futuristic city, to playing as a cowboy riding a horse across the Wild West. One of the standout examples included sailing through the city of Venice, though wing suiting across a mountain range is also up there.



Some other noteworthy scenarios that Genie 3 can generate include:

• Exploring a volcano
• Swimming as a jellyfish deep underwater
• Walking around worlds from your favorite science fiction universe
• Flying a helicopter over some hills

Google’s Genie 3 is limited, for now. You can also tell from the art style that the environments were made by AI: they’ve got that “almost too perfect” look to them. But generating an entire environment with just a few words? This might just be the next replacement for game development engines like Unity and Unreal.



We’ve already seen multiple companies laying off their employees to replace them with AI. Customer support representatives were some of the first to go, and McDonald’s is even experimenting with AI models receiving orders at drive-throughs. Even Duolingo — a language learning app — let go of human employees in lieu of AI.

Seeing how cutthroat the AAA game development industry is, I can’t help but feel like game developers are now an even more endangered species. We might see more and more indie studios start popping up, with many rushing to support them because they want to play games made by humans.

That future is still a ways away, but Google — with Genie 3 — has shown that it will likely become a reality one day. Fortunately, for now at least, this is just a fun thing for people to mess around with that makes you ponder the future potential of this technology: like training robots in virtual environments.