Google updates Project Genie with Street View imagery grounding

Google has launched a major update to its experimental AI world-building tool, Project Genie, integrating it with real-world imagery from Google Street View. The feature, which is now rolling out globally to adult subscribers of the Google AI Ultra service, allows users to create interactive, explorable environments anchored to actual locations in the United States.

The update represents a significant technical shift for Project Genie, which the company describes as a general-purpose world model. Previously, the AI system generated environments primarily from user-written prompts. Now, it can ground its creations in the visual data of real places accessed through Google Maps. Users select a U.S. location via a map pin, choose a stylistic theme, and describe a character. Project Genie then generates a navigable, 60-second simulation that blends the chosen location with the imaginative elements.

A company demonstration showed the Golden Gate Bridge transformed into an underwater scene filled with sea life. Other examples included reimagining the Fort Worth Stockyards in a grainy, black-and-white 1920s style. Users can customize the exploring character, turning it into anything...