Last updated: 2026-07-27
Project Genie is Google DeepMind's real-time AI world generator, built on a general-purpose transformer, live on Google Labs for US Ultra users since 2026.
Project Genie is Google DeepMind's web-based world-generation prototype, launched January 29, 2026 on Google Labs. Built on Genie 3, an 11-billion-parameter transformer, it turns a prompt, image, or sketch into an explorable 3D world rendered at 24 frames per second, letting users walk, fly, or drive through AI-generated environments in real time.
Project Genie is an experimental research prototype from Google DeepMind that generates interactive virtual environments from a prompt, an image, or a rough drawing. It launched through Google Labs in early 2026 and runs on Genie 3, DeepMind's general-purpose world model, alongside Gemini and Nano Banana Pro for prompt and image handling. The underlying organization, Google DeepMind, was formed in 2010 as an independent AI lab before merging with Google Brain in 2023. Unlike procedural generation engines that assemble pre-built assets under fixed rules, Genie 3 generates textures, geometry, physics, and unseen terrain dynamically as a user moves through the world. The system supports three core actions: sketching a new world from a written idea or picture, exploring it with walking, flying, or driving movement across first-person or isometric views, and remixing it mid-session with promptable world events such as weather changes or new objects. The model also connects to DeepMind's SIMA agent, letting researchers test goal-based navigation inside generated environments. Project Genie is best suited to game designers prototyping level concepts, AI researchers studying embodied agents, and curious Ultra subscribers experimenting with generative world-building. It is not yet a tool for shipping finished playable games: sessions have a short interaction horizon and the generated world's consistency degrades the longer a session runs. Access is gated behind Google's priciest AI Ultra subscription plan and restricted to eligible adults located in the United States; the cheaper Ultra tier leaves it out entirely. The prototype runs inside a browser with no downloads, so any desktop, tablet, or mobile device with a modern browser can use it. Google has positioned Project Genie as an early signal that frontier AI is moving past text and static video generation into real-time interactive world generation, a layer DeepMind expects to feed future gaming, simulation, and agent-training tools.
Bundled exclusively inside Google's $200/month AI Ultra plan. The lower-cost $100/month Ultra tier, plus anyone outside the US or under 18, gets no access, and there is no separate free trial.
Project Genie carries no separate price tag of its own. It comes bundled with Google's priciest AI Ultra subscription, currently $200 a month, while the cheaper $100 a month Ultra plan leaves it out entirely. There's no pay-per-use or standalone purchase option.
No. Project Genie has no free tier or trial of any kind. It only becomes available once you're subscribed to Google's top AI Ultra plan, and even then access is restricted to adults located in the United States.
Runway suits teams that need a finished, editable video output with motion brush and camera controls rather than a live explorable world. Kling AI is a strong pick for cinematic short clips without any interactive navigation. Pika works well for quick, shareable social video when a walkable 3D environment is not the goal.
Runway renders a finished video clip you edit after the fact, with a broader creative toolkit for production pipelines. Project Genie instead generates a live, navigable 3D world that a user steers in real time, but that world only holds together for about a minute per session.
Sign up for Google's top AI Ultra plan, confirm eligibility as a US-based adult, then open labs.google/projectgenie and sign in with the same Google account. From there, type a prompt, upload an image, or sketch a scene to generate a world to explore.
Google DeepMind's web-based tool converts a prompt, photo, or sketch into a walkable AI-generated world you can explore in real time.
Google DeepMind