Decart, an Israeli AI company that has just emerged from obscurity with $21 million from Sequoia and Oren Zeev, has introduced what it claims to be the first playable 'open-world' AI model.

The model is called Oasis and is available for download. A demo runs on Decart's website – a game similar to Minecraft that is completely generated in real-time. Oasis, trained on videos of Minecraft gameplay, processes inputs from the keyboard and mouse and instantly generates frames, including physics, rules, and graphics. As a result, you can play the demo game directly from your browser.

Oasis falls into a new category of generative AI models called 'world models.'Many of these models can simulate games, but few can achieve the frame rate that Oasis does.

I tried the demo, but it still has a long way to go for true enjoyment. The resolution is quite low, and Oasis tends to quickly 'forget' the layout of the level – just turning the character caused the landscape to suddenly be arranged differently. The game resembles a dream. The whole world is constantly changing.

However, Decart is adding new features, such as the ability to upload an image and create your own 'world.'It also states that future versions of Oasis, which will run on upcoming AI chips from Etched (the demo currently runs on Nvidia H100 GPU), could handle up to 4K display.

'These models may one day enhance modern entertainment platforms by generating content on user demand,' Decart writes on its blog. 'Or they could offer a gaming experience with text and audio stimuli that would influence the game.'

But there is the question of copyright. Decart does not say it has permission from Microsoft to train on videos from Minecraft. (Minecraft belongs to Microsoft.)Does this mean that Oasis is essentially an unauthorized copy of Minecraft? That will have to be answered by the courts.

 

You can try the demo yourself here: https://oasis.decart.ai/starting-point