Here comes the holodeck —AI breakthrough lets you play a game from an image

If you've ever thought to yourself "This would be a great multiplayer map " (and I can't have been the only one), then your time has come.

New AI-generated world models allow users to generate playable worlds from image prompts, letting you create a platforming game from your local soft play center, or a sci-fi shooter based on your local gym. We've even seen Google recreate Doom in real-time using AI image generation.

OK, so it's still early days, but if you're curious, examples have been emerging from the last couple of months — including a nifty walkthrough of a diffusion world model in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

AI could generate a game level in real-time

The new tech leans on the much swifter image pipeline than what was previously possible, potentially allowing for players to walk through worlds as they're generated in real-time.

Naturally, that takes a lot of compute power, so you'd likely need a beefy rig to enjoy it, and there are plenty of shortcomings, too. A lack of more bespoke maps would likely mean inferior textures, bizarre geometry (expect more than a few dead ends to corridors), and at present, the model can only hold the image of the world for a short period.

That means you could walk through a door, turn around, and said door is gone. On the other hand, this could create a dream-like impermanence, feeling closer to an Inception-like inability to know how you got to the moment where you are, but able to see firsthand as it collapses in on itself.

It's a fascinating concept, and it'll be interesting to see if any developers start to weave diffusion world models into their projects.

More from Tom's Guide

• I used ChatGPT to finally understand what those buttons do on my dishwasher
• Lip-sync battle — I put 3 leading AI video tools to the test
• 5 tips to get the most out of ChatGPT from someone who uses it every day