World Model Week: Runway Solaris & GWM 2, World Labs Atlas, and OpenAI Astra 6 all land
Not Boring (Packy McCormick) · rss · 2026-09-04
- World model week: Runway launched Solaris (an "interface world model" that generates apps frame-by-frame in real time — no code, "the image is the application") and GWM World 2 (interactive 720p/24fps real-time environment simulation with 48kHz audio). Fei-Fei Li's World Labs unveiled Atlas, an "omni world model" trained from scratch on text, images, video, camera poses, depth maps and 3D, generating up to 1 minute of 1440p video with pixel-perfect camera control and 3D reconstruction from 1–100 photos.
- OpenAI Astra 6 shipped; Matt Shumer's demo built a simulated Manhattan world full of coordinating Astra agents — the author's most anticipated model yet.
- Energy: Fervo signed a 396 MW enhanced geothermal PPA with Google — the largest ever — to power a Utah data center 24/7 from 2028, with an option to scale to 1 GW by June 2030.
- Transport: Tesla launched Cybercab in Austin: two seats, butterfly doors, no steering wheel or pedals, hailable via the Robotaxi app within the geofence.
Plus an "Any Human Ever" site that lets you randomly sample a life from the 100+ billion people who ever lived — a Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance riff on why now is the best time to be alive.
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