Latest news with #interactiveVideo
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
This Dreamlike Video Generator Makes Interactive AI Feel Like a Lo-Fi Acid Trip
We talk a lot about AI hallucinations nowadays—and for good reason. 'Hallucinations' is basically AI-speak for 'making sh*t up,' and most of the time—like in the case of web search, which relies on surfacing real, useful information—that's a Very Bad Thing. I don't think I'm alone when I say AI shouldn't be recommending that we put glue on our pizza, even if we know enough not to actually do that. But hallucinating doesn't always have to be bad. Sometimes, just like in real life, it can be a heck of a lot of fun, and Odyssey, a new company trying to pioneer interactive AI video, is making a pretty solid case for the fun side of things. Don't take my word for it—see for yourself. Introducing AI video you can watch and interact with, in real-time! Powering this is a new world model that imagines and streams video frames every 40ms(!). No game engine in sight. We call it interactive video, and it's free for anyone to try right now (GPUs permitting)! — Odyssey (@odysseyml) May 28, 2025 Odyssey is exactly as the company describes—a web-based world where you can stream AI-generated video. Unlike other video generators like Google's Veo 3, which requires using a text prompt to create a video that you can only watch, Odyssey generates a whole world that you can actually explore using your keyboard. If you're reading this and thinking, 'Isn't that Minecraft or any number of world-generating games out there?' apparently there actually is a difference, according to Odyssey. There is no game engine—all of the worlds are being generated in real time as you explore them. Per Odyssey, it 'streams video frames every 40ms' for a continuously generated experience. As a follower of video generation and AI, I naturally jumped straight into trying out Odyssey for myself, and the 'game,' if you can call it that, is weird in the best way possible. For now, everything in Odyssey is very lo-fi, which for most interactive apps (AI-generated or otherwise) would be a bad thing, but in this case, it kind of works. It leans into the necessity for a low frame rate to deliver hazy, almost dreamlike worlds. It's like if you took 3D imagery from Google Maps, funneled it into a VCR, and then played it back after freebasing some experimental new research chemical made from thermal paste. (Disclaimer: Please don't try that at home, folks.) The whole thing, as you might imagine, is pretty buggy, too. Environments render and sometimes disappear, making the whole thing even more hallucinatory than it already is. Using your keyboard WASD-style to explore the worlds is decidedly a slow, plodding experience, but I can't say I'm particularly mad about that. Everything in Odyssey feels experimental to an extent, and the fuzzy nature of scanning through worlds with an almost radio-like tuner comes off as more of an aesthetic choice, even if it's actually a technical necessity. That doesn't mean the creators of Odyssey—backed by Pixar cofounder Edwin Catmull, as noted by The Verge—aren't looking to up the visual ante. A next-gen version of Odyssey is already in the pipeline, though it's hard to say when that will materialize and how much of a visual improvement it will be For now, the experience is exactly what it needs to be—it's interesting and glitchy. I'm sure things are bound to get more complex and maybe more convoluted as they progress, but these are the early stages we can actually appreciate without having to overthink it. I know AI-generated video is in a strange state right now, but if you've got the time, I recommend taking a weird, disjointed stroll through Odyssey. It might just be the only AI video experience that doesn't fill you with dread right now.
TechCrunch
4 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Odyssey's new AI model streams 3D interactive worlds
Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, has developed an AI model that lets users 'interact' with streaming video. Available on the web in an 'early demo,' the model generates and streams video frames every 40 milliseconds. Via basic controls, viewers can explore areas within a video, similar to a 3D-rendered video game. 'Given the current state of the world, an incoming action, and a history of states and actions, the model attempts to predict the next state of the world,' explains Odyssey in a blog post. 'Powering this is a new world model, demonstrating capabilities like generating pixels that feel realistic, maintaining spatial consistency, learning actions from video, and outputting coherent video streams for 5 minutes or more.' Introducing AI video you can watch and interact with, in real-time! Powering this is a new world model that imagines and streams video frames every 40ms(!). No game engine in sight. We call it interactive video, and it's free for anyone to try right now (GPUs permitting)! — Odyssey (@odysseyml) May 28, 2025 A number of startups and big tech companies are chasing after world models, including DeepMind, influential AI researcher Fei-Fei Lee's World Labs, Microsoft, and Decart. They believe that world models could one day be used to create interactive media, such as games and movies, and run realistic simulations like training environments for robots. But creatives have mixed feelings about the tech. A recent Wired investigation found that game studios like Activision Blizzard, which has laid off scores of workers, are using AI to cut corners and combat attrition. And a 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimated that over 100,000 U.S.-based film, television, and animation jobs will be disrupted by AI in the coming months. For its part, Odyssey is pledging to collaborate with creative professionals — not replace them. 'Interactive video […] opens the door to entirely new forms of entertainment, where stories can be generated and explored on demand, free from the constraints and costs of traditional production,' writes the company in its blog post. 'Over time, we believe everything that is video today — entertainment, ads, education, training, travel, and more — will evolve into interactive video, all powered by Odyssey.' Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Odyssey's demo is a bit rough around the edges, which the company acknowledges in its post. The environments the model generates are blurry and distorted, and unstable in the sense that their layouts don't always remain the same. Walk forward in one direction for a while or turn around, and the surroundings might suddenly look different. But the company's promising to rapidly improve upon the model, which can currently stream video at up to 30 frames per second from clusters of Nvidia H100 GPUs at the cost of $1-$2 per 'user-hour.' The world played forward, by a model. On the one hand, it's calm and serene. On the other, it's chaotic and terrifying. I think the model nailed it in both cases. — Oliver Cameron (@olivercameron) May 28, 2025 'Looking ahead, we're researching richer world representations that capture dynamics far more faithfully, while increasing temporal stability and persistent state,' writes Odyssey in its post. 'In parallel, we're expanding the action space from motion to world interaction, learning open actions from large-scale video.' Odyssey is taking a different approach than many AI labs in the world modeling space. It designed a 360-degree, backpack-mounted camera system to capture real-world landscapes, which Odyssey thinks can serve as a basis for higher-quality models than models trained solely on publicly available data. To date, Odyssey has raised $27 million from investors including EQT Ventures, GV, and Air Street Capital. Ed Catmull, one of the co-founders of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, is on the startup's board of directors. Last December, Odyssey said it was working on software that allows creators to load scenes generated by its models into tools such as Unreal Engine, Blender, and Adobe After Effects so that they can be hand-edited.
