World Labs co-founder Justin Johnson on Atlas world models and the future of 3D AI
a16z Podcast · rss · 2026-09-13
In an a16z podcast, World Labs co-founder Justin Johnson discusses Atlas, the startup's latest world model, and the case for AI that understands and acts in the physical world.
- Atlas's three core tasks: generating new worlds, reconstructing real environments from images, and simulating how objects or robots behave in them.
- The thesis: just as LLMs became general-purpose engines for text, world models could become a horizontal layer for visual and physical intelligence across entertainment, gaming, construction, and robotics.
- Games and creative tools: world models could reshape both, with precise spatial control being key.
- Real-to-sim-to-real robotics: a few photos of a physical space may eventually suffice to build a simulation and adapt a robot to it.
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