Fans of the 1980's-era sitcom A Different World were initially thrilled to hear that the Cosby Show spinoff was making the jump to Netflix, with all six seasons presented in HD quality. Then they started watching, and noticed there was, indeed, something very different about how A Different World looks on streaming. The text on signs looks strangely garbled. Faces in the background appear squished, sometimes even a tad monstrous. The image as a whole looks like an animated watercolor painting. Everything looks… well, weird, bordering on grotesque.

We introduce Infinitia, a simulation game system that uses generative image and language models at play time to reshape all aspects of the setting and NPCs based on a short description from the player, in a way similar to how settings are created on the fictional Holodeck. Building off the ideas of the Generative Agents paper, our system introduces gameplay elements, such as infinite generated fantasy worlds, controllability of NPC behavior, humorous dialogue, cost & time efficiency, collaboration between players and elements of non-determinism among in-game events. Infinitia is implemented in the Unity engine with a server-client architecture, facilitating the addition of exciting features by community developers in the future. Furthermore, it uses a multiplayer framework to allow humans to be present and interact in the simulation. The simulation will be available in open-alpha shortly at https://infinitia.ai/ and we are looking forward to building upon it with the community.

The experience of travelling in Japan is simultaneously overwhelming and freeing. The world feels bigger out there, gilded by how mainstream video game culture is in comparison with the west. It doesn't feel like a subculture; it is ordinary. For example, I walked into a FamilyMart for a snack one afternoon, and found a Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom promotional mushroom tart (which was delicious). The little bright-green payphones along the streets are the very same as those used in the Resident Services in Animal Crossing.

It would be wrong to claim that I first met the German artist Hito Steyerl on such-and-such day, in such-and-such city, where the weather was bright or blustery, and that she arrived suitably dressed for this season or the next. It is more accurate to say that she simply appeared while I was waiting in the atrium of the Communist Party court, under a spectacular red banner from which the faces of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin bore down on me. One minute I was alone, and the next she was there--all yellow and smooth, except for the thick black cubes of her hands and her large, impassive face. Four black cats trailed her, in place of her shadow. "I spawned a lot of them, so they have multiplied," she murmured.

The last time stocks in Tokyo were this high, things were a little different. Orders now silently processed in milliseconds were shouted across smoky open outcry trading floors. Yuriko Koike, now Tokyo's governor, was a fresh-faced TV presenter on the country's leading business news show. The U.S. fretted over "Japan as number one," while China was an economic backwater. That's how long it's been since the 225-issue Nikkei stock average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange passed 30,000, an event which first took place in December 1988.

I often get asked how AI will affect jobs. Everyone who drives for a living knows their job is going to vanish eventually. Coffee shop baristas are in similar jeopardy: just stop by the fully robotic CafeX kiosk in San Francisco to experience that yourself. Soon we might be ordering meals from burger-flipping bots, to be delivered by yet more robots. How are we to raise our kids in a world like this?