New AI Model Can Simulate 'Super Mario Bros.' After Watching Gameplay Footage

Last month, Google's GameNGen AI model showed that generalized image diffusion techniques can be used to generate a passable, playable version of Doom. Now, researchers are using some similar techniques with a model called MarioVGG to see whether AI can generate plausible video of Super Mario Bros. in response to user inputs. The results of the MarioVGG model--available as a preprint paper published by the crypto-adjacent AI company Virtuals Protocol--still display a lot of apparent glitches, and it's too slow for anything approaching real-time gameplay. But the results show how even a limited model can infer some impressive physics and gameplay dynamics just from studying a bit of video and input data. The researchers hope this represents a first step toward "producing and demonstrating a reliable and controllable video game generator" or possibly even "replacing game development and game engines completely using video generation models" in the future.