The next frontier of AI: how ‘world models’ are simulating reality and virtual spaces

Artificial intelligence has spent years learning to generate words, images and videos. Now, the industry’s attention is shifting towards “world models” – AI systems designed to simulate how the physical or digital world changes over time. While the term was originally associated with physics simulations and robotics, a growing number of Chinese companies are applying the concept more broadly. The technology remains in its infancy, with little consensus on what a world model should ultimately...

Related evidence

These records share source-supplied organisations, an exact publisher byline, automatic topics or regions. The reason is shown on every link; related does not mean supporting, agreeing with or verifying this record.

How to cite this record

ethics.ai (10 July 2026), “The next frontier of AI: how ‘world models’ are simulating reality and virtual spaces,” evidence record 2915, https://ethics.ai/record/2915 (originally published by SCMP Tech (HK/CN)).

Use and limitations

This page is a stable index and citation surface for a source record. ethics.ai did not author the underlying report and has not independently verified every claim. Automatic topics may be imperfect. For consequential use, quote and cite the original publisher.