{"id":243689,"date":"2026-09-05T01:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/why-world-models-could-change-robotics-3d-and-creativity"},"modified":"2026-09-05T01:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:22:03","slug":"why-world-models-could-change-robotics-3d-and-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/why-world-models-could-change-robotics-3d-and-creativity","title":{"rendered":"Why World Models Could Change Robotics, 3D, and Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qn1QDDBnTA0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>World Labs co-founders Fei-Fei Li, Justin Johnson, and Ben Mildenhall join a16z General Partner Martin Casado to discuss Atlas, their latest world model, and what it reveals about the pursuit of spatial intelligence. At the center of Atlas is what the team calls \u201cnew view prediction\u201d: given images or views of a scene, the model predicts what that environment should look like from a different position in space and time. This brings generation and 3D reconstruction into the same model, and raises a broader question about whether predicting views could become a useful primitive for understanding the physical world. They discuss the technical bets behind the model, what it can and can\u2019t yet capture, and the importance of dynamics, editability, and simulation as world models develop. The conversation also explores applications in creative work, architecture, and robotics, where Fei-Fei argues that one of today\u2019s biggest constraints is access to real-world training data. Timestamps: 00:00 \u2014 Intro 00:51 \u2014 What Atlas Is &amp; Why It Matters 05:15 \u2014 Is This a Scaled-Up Video Model or a New Architecture? 08:15 \u2014 Spatial Intelligence &amp; Why New View Prediction Matters 21:27 \u2014 Did You Know It Was Going to Work? 24:42 \u2014 Use Cases: Creatives, Games &amp; Robotics 35:21 \u2014 The Elephant in the Room: Video Models vs World Models 37:55 \u2014 Will We Get 4D Video You Can Walk Around In? 42:22 \u2014 Why New View Prediction Is the Next Token Prediction Resources: Follow Fei-Fei Li on X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drfeifei\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/drfeifei<\/a> Follow Justin Johnson on X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jcjohnss\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/jcjohnss<\/a> Follow Ben Mildenhall on X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenMildenhall\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenMildenhall<\/a> Follow Martin Casado on X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/martin_casado\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/martin_casado<\/a> Learn more about Atlas: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldlabs.ai\/blog\/atlas\">https:\/\/www.worldlabs.ai\/blog\/atlas<\/a> Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: <img class=\"\" alt=\"\"> \/ a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: <img class=\"\" alt=\"\"> \/ a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5bC65RD\">https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5bC65RD<\/a>\u2026 to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\">https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast<\/a>\u2026 Follow our host: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eriktorenberg\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/eriktorenberg<\/a> Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see <a href=\"http:\/\/a16z.com\/disclosures\">http:\/\/a16z.com\/disclosures<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Labs co-founders Fei-Fei Li, Justin Johnson, and Ben Mildenhall join a16z General Partner Martin Casado to discuss Atlas, their latest world model, and what it reveals about the pursuit of spatial intelligence. At the center of Atlas is what the team calls \u201cnew view prediction\u201d: given images or views of a scene, the model [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1496,6,1492],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-law","category-robotics-ai","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}