Today, Decart, the Israeli AI company that emerged from stealth with $21 million in funding from Sequoia and Oren Zeev, released what it claims is the first playable “open world” AI model.
The model, called Oasis, is available for download and demo on Descart's site. This is a Minecraft-like game that is generated end-to-end on the fly. Trained on videos of Minecraft gameplay, Oasis captures keyboard and mouse movements and generates frames in real time to simulate physics, rules, and graphics.
Image credit: Decart
Oasis is part of an emerging category of generative AI models called “world models.” Many of these models can simulate games, but few can achieve frame rates as high as Oasis.
I tried the demo out of curiosity, but I think it still has a long way to go before it becomes a truly enjoyable experience. The resolution is very low and Oasis tends to “forget” the level layout quickly. You might even turn your character around just to see the rearranged scenery.
I'm also wondering about the copyright implications here. Decart said he didn't rely on Microsoft to help him train with Minecraft footage. (Microsoft owns Minecraft.) Is Oasis essentially making a pirated copy of Minecraft? That's for the courts to decide.
But Decart believes future versions of Oasis, optimized to run on Etched's upcoming AI accelerator chip (the demo currently runs on an Nvidia H100 GPU), could generate up to 4K gameplay. Masu.
“[These] The model may even be able to enhance modern entertainment platforms by generating content on the fly based on user preferences,” Decart wrote in a blog post. “Or it could be a gaming experience that offers new possibilities for user interaction, such as text or voice prompts that guide gameplay.”