World Labs' Spatial AI Vision to Revolutionise Science

Why live in one world when you can explore hundreds? 

World Labs, with its pioneering research on spatial intelligence, is building ‘world models’ that have the power to revolutionise science and creativity.

Having raised US$1bn in funding, the ambition of the trailblazing startup now has prominent industry backing, with a line of investors including AMD, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research Company, NVIDIA and Sea.

“This investment reflects a belief I hold deeply: the next chapter of AI will be defined by systems that can understand and reason about the physical world, not just language,” says Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO at Autodesk. 

“Designing and making the world requires AI that understands space, structure, physics, materials and time. 

“World Labs is taking a distinct approach to AI that can create and reason about realistic 3D environments that persist and evolve. 

“Combined with Autodesk’s domain expertise, we’re forging a different path for next generation design, simulation and digital twin workflows.”

Create worlds with Marble

Marble is an exceptionally powerful AI tool that creates 3D worlds from text, images, video or coarse 3D layouts. 

This multimodal tool is the first product released by World Labs, with the power to create, expand and combine 3D worlds with a single input – imagination. 

The created world can then be modified to suit your liking with AI-native world editing tools that can make anything from small changes like removing or moving objects around to changing the visual style and even restructuring major parts of the world. 

“World Labs believes that spatial intelligence is the linchpin technology for creativity, for experiences, for simulation and embodied AI,” says Fei-Fei Li, CEO and Cofounder of World Labs.

This spatial intelligence means that after manifesting the world you need, Marble offers one-step expansion to make any area, particular objects or details larger. 

This can support cinematic filmmaking, gaming, VFX, design, robotics and much more. 

The World Labs blog reads, “While flexing your creativity in Marble, Marble Labs may further inspire your imagination. This is where artists, engineers, and designers are already shaping what comes next. 

“From cinematic filmmaking and interactive worlds to robotics simulations and therapeutic environments, these projects show how Marble is transforming imagination into reality. 

“Each one reflects a new way of building with world models, both creative and technical.”

Call Worlds with World API 

The immense potential of world models means the community of developers could find interesting ways to put it to use.

To help embed worlds into programmable workflows, World Labs has released a World API which lowers the barriers of spatial creation, that can be called into action through simple lines of code.  

The API also allows multimodal inputs like text, single images, multi-image sets, 360° panoramas and videos to create the navigable worlds which capture layout, depth, lighting and spatial structure. 

These generated worlds can then be exported to other industry tools thereby ensuring interoperability or can be used as foundations for various interactive experiences. 

“Marble is just a step on our journey toward spatial intelligence,” the company notes.

“Going forward, a key opportunity is interactivity. 

“Future world models will let humans and agents alike interact with generated worlds in new ways, unlocking even more use cases in simulation, robotics and beyond.”