World models -- internal simulators that learn the structure and dynamics of an environment -- have become one of the most actively debated concepts in AI. From model-based reinforcement learning and video generation to embodied robotics and ultimately, physical AI, researchers across AI subfields are building systems that they call "world models", yet there is no consensus on what a world model fundamentally is, what it should predict, or how it should be built.
arXiv:2604. 22748v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: As AI systems move from generating text to accomplishing goals through sustained interaction, the ability to model environment dynamics becomes a central bottleneck.
By Meng Chu, Xuan Billy Zhang, Kevin Qinghong Lin, Lingdong Kong, Jize Zhang, Teng Tu, Weijian Ma, Ziqi Huang, Senqiao Yang, Wei Huang, Yeying Jin, Zhefan Rao, Jinhui Ye, Xinyu Lin, Xichen Zhang, Qisheng Hu, Shuai Yang, Leyang Shen, Wei Chow, Yifei Dong, Fengyi Wu, Quanyu Long, Bin Xia, Shaozuo Yu, Mingkang Zhu, Wenhu Zhang, Jiehui Huang, Haokun Gui, Runyi Li, Shiyi Du, Xu Huang, Dong Huang, Rui Liu, Chenyu Tang, Xuhang Chen, Chengzu Li, Haoxuan Che, Long Chen, Qifeng Chen, Wenxuan Zhang, Wenya Wang, Xiaojuan Qi, Yang Deng, Yanwei Li, Mike Zheng Shou, Zhi-Qi Cheng, See-Kiong Ng, Ziwei Liu, Philip Torr, Jiaya Jia
arXiv:2507. 05169v5 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: World Model, the algorithmic simulator of the real-world environment which biological agents experience and act upon, has been an emerging topic in recent years due to the rising need to develop virtual agents with artificial (general) intelligence.
By Eric Xing, Mingkai Deng, Jinyu Hou