AI GlossaryㅅTechnical words in the news
World Model
A model that learns how the world actually works — physics and cause and effect — rather than language. The next battleground in video generation and robotics.
In plain words
This is a model that learns not language, but how the world works: the physics and causality of objects falling, colliding, and being occluded. Think of it as giving a machine an internal simulator of the world.
For a video generation AI to make water flow naturally, it effectively has to understand physics. For a robot to pick up a cup, it has to predict what will happen when it grips it. That's why World Models are called the "next battleground" in both video generation and physical AI. "After language models, world models" has become a stock headline in related coverage.
See also
Stories using this term
- World Labs' Atlas Generates and Reconstructs 3D Worlds From a Few PhotosAI · 2026.09.03
- Runway unveils Solaris, which redraws the screen with every clickAI · 2026.09.01
- Mathematicians say LLMs compute well but can't generate new ideasAI · 2026.08.17
- Tencent unveils 'Hy3D WorldClaw' for generating 3D open worlds from textAI · 2026.08.11
- Sakana AI Brings Recursive Self-Improvement to 'Physical AI' for Robots That Learn on Their OwnAI · 2026.08.11
- NVIDIA proposes robot policy trained on video instead of vision-language modelsAI · 2026.08.09