Google is building its own World Modelling team to help it achieve AGI goals
LLM AI's read and regurgitate text, compared to what the rest of the world has to offer that's quite basic, so companies are building World Models to boost AI capabilities and utility.
Key takeaways
- The initiative will be led by Tim Brooks, a former co-lead for OpenAI’s Sora project who joined DeepMind in October to work on Google’s video generation and world simulators.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company has cracked how to build AGI, and that autonomous AI agents may start to meaningfully join workforces this year.
- The new DeepMind team will work alongside existing Google AI projects including its flagship Gemini AI models, Veo video generator, and Genie — Google’s prior world model for simulating playable 3D environments in real-time.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2025) 'Google is building its own World Modelling team to help it achieve AGI goals', 311 Institute, 9 March. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/google-is-building-its-own-world-modelling-team-for-next-gen-ai/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
A while ago I talked about how companies like Amazon and Nvidia and others were developing digital twin simulations of the real world – including everything from the Earth itself to neighbourhoods and offices. And now, years down the line, Google DeepMind is assembling its own team of Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers to develop “World Models” that can simulate physical environments. The initiative will be led by Tim Brooks, a former co-lead for OpenAI’s Sora project who joined DeepMind in October to work on Google’s video generation and world simulators.
World models are a relatively new development within AI that could serve a variety of purposes, such as creating real-time interactive media environments for video games and movies, and realistic training scenarios for robots and other AI systems. It’s also part of Google’s push to achieve an Artificial General Intelligence system, or AGI, before its competitors.
“DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world,” Brooks announced in an X post on Monday. Brooks included two open job listings for research engineers and scientists who will help to advance AI “world models” capable of simulating real-world scenarios by solving problems around training “at massive scale,” curating training data, and studying how they can be integrated with multimodal language models.
“We believe scaling pretraining on video and multimodal data is on the critical path to artificial general intelligence,” DeepMind said in the job descriptions. “World models will power numerous domains, such as visual reasoning and simulation, planning for embodied agents, and real-time interactive entertainment.”
The race to be the first to declare AGI is heating up, so Google’s focus here isn’t surprising. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company has cracked how to build AGI, and that autonomous AI agents may start to meaningfully join workforces this year.
There are several competitors who already have a head start over DeepMind’s world modelling project, including Nvidia’s Cosmos platform for advancing physical AI, autonomous vehicle, and robot development; and the World Labs startup created by “The Godmother of AI,” Fei-Fei Li.
The new DeepMind team will work alongside existing Google AI projects including its flagship Gemini AI models, Veo video generator, and Genie — Google’s prior world model for simulating playable 3D environments in real-time.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
LLM AI's read and regurgitate text, compared to what the rest of the world has to offer that's quite basic, so companies are building World Models to boost AI capabilities and utility.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Sources and further reading
- who joined DeepMind in October x.com
- DeepMind said in the job descriptions boards.greenhouse.io
- Nvidia’s Cosmos platform nvidianews.nvidia.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 9 March 2025. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2025). Google is building its own World Modelling team to help it achieve AGI goals. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/google-is-building-its-own-world-modelling-team-for-next-gen-ai/
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