Google DeepMind connects Project Genie to Street View, creating AI simulations of real places

Google's Genie world model can now simulate real streets with Street View | TechCrunch

We've all pulled up Street View on Google Maps to show a friend what our childhood home looked like, or dropped that little person icon onto the streets of Paris to see if we booked a hotel in a cool neighborhood. Imagine being able to do that, but in a more immersive, interactive way that allows you to really simulate the street and its environs, and even do things like adjust the weather or see what it would look like in a "Day After Tomorrow" scenario. That's one of the goals of Google's latest integration. Starting today, Google DeepMind is connecting Street View to Project Genie, the company's general-purpose world model that can generate diverse, interactive environments. The new feature launched during the Google I/O developer conference. "It's really powerful for both the agent [and robotics] use case and for humans to play with, and that's always been the thesis of Genie," Jack Parker-Holder, a research scientist on DeepMind's open-endedness team, told TechCrunch. He gave the example of a new robot being deployed in London, which rarely sees the sun. Genie could, Parker-Holder says, simulate those scarce occasions when the sun glints off the Victorian housing, so the rays don't shock the robot when it happens. "Simultaneously, you might say, 'I'm going to New York City, but not this time of year,'" he continued. "'It's going to be snowy. I want to see what that block looks like in the snow.'" Google has been collecting Street View data for 20 years via cars with cameras and individuals strapped with "tracker backpacks." The tech giant has collected north of 280 billion images across 110 countries and seven continents. "With Street View, we have imagery from a large quantity of the world," Jack said. "You can imagine how potentially powerful it is to combine this rich source of real-world information and data with an ability to simulate worlds." Google released its latest world model Genie 3 for research preview last August and opened up access to the tool to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. in January, allowing customers to create interactive game worlds from text prompts or images. The goal is to use Genie for educational experiences, gaming, and robotics training. Genie 3 is already helping to power one of Waymo's simulators to train its self-driving cars on "exceedingly rare events" like tornadoes or casual elephant encounters. Adding Street View data to that could help Waymo prepare to launch in more cities around the globe. Waymo has its own simulator that it relied on to scale to 11 U.S. cities and test its AI driver in several more. The difference with Genie, says Parker-Holder, is that those are all from the car's point of view. Street View allows for not only simulating a world anchored to a real place, but also shifting the point of view to other types of agents, like a human or a robot. Google is launching Street View in Genie to some Ultra users in the United States starting today, with access rolling out at scale over time. Global Ultra users will gain access over the next few weeks, per the company. The researchers' goal is to put this new capability into as many hands as possible, per Diego Rivas, a product manager at DeepMind. He cautioned that Street View in particular and Genie in general is still an experiment, so there's much to improve upon in terms of accuracy. In the samples the Google team showed me -- including an underwater simulation of a neighborhood I used to live in -- the results are impressive and recognizable, but still video game quality rather than photorealistic. The models are also not yet physics-aware, meaning they don't yet understand cause and effect. For example, in a simulation of a woman running through a snowy Joshua Tree, she ran right through cacti and bushes. Compare that to, say, Google's image generator Nano Banana -- which can now generate perfect text in infographics -- or its video generator Veo -- which understands that paper boats drift on water currents, smoke disperses into the air, and fabric drapes over forms. Physics isn't hard-coded into these models; they learn it intuitively over time through passive observation, as a living being would. "I think for this kind of model, it's maybe six to 12 months behind video in terms of the accuracy and quality, so I think it's something we will solve," Parker-Holder said. Jonathan Herbert, director of Google Maps who started on the Street View team as an intern 12 years ago, said that Genie can't yet create a faithful reconstruction of a street. He thinks the real breakthrough is the AI's spatial continuity. If you turn 360 degrees, the AI correctly remembers and simulates the environment behind you. From that point on, the model can build a new environment on top of that. "We have long thought about how we can build out the best and richest model of the world on top of Street View data," Herbert said. "It's definitely been an idea of ours to use Maps Data in new ways and for new kinds of AI research for a pretty long time."

Google's Project Genie: You Can Now Base Imaginary Worlds on Real Places

Macy has been working for CNET for coming on 2 years. Prior to CNET, Macy received a North Carolina College Media Association award in sports writing. Ever wondered what the Golden Gate Bridge would look like underwater? Now you can see it. On stage at the Google I/O annual developer conference, Google announced the launch of a new feature for Project Genie -- an experimental generative AI world model web app first released in January. The new capability integrates Google Maps' dataset of 280 billion Street View images across 110 countries to ground text-to-video simulations in real-world locations. That way, you can explore your favorite real places, but use generative AI to give them an imaginative twist. By connecting these two products, you can take the generative capabilities of Project Genie and combine them with the vast data of Maps' Street View to anchor the AI model in reality. To get started, tap the Maps pin to choose a location in the US, then use the AI to select a style. (For now, this feature is available only for US locations, with plans to expand.) For instance, if you do want to see the Golden Gate Bridge -- but underwater -- you can tap "Ocean World" style, which will add an imaginary scuba diver and schools of fish to an otherwise realistic depiction of the famous landmark. You can also select from styles like "Desert Sands," "Stone Age" or "B&W film" style for a vintage feel to match whatever vibe you're going for. This capability uses Maps Imagery Grounding, the same technology developers use to make AI visuals with Street View. Project Genie (and the new Street View capability) will now also be rolling out globally to Google AI Ultra subscribers.

Project Genie adds Google Street View integration and goes live for global AI Ultra users - Engadget

Ground your snow-globe worlds in real-world locations from Google Maps. Project Genie is rolling out today for all adult Google AI Ultra subscribers across the globe, following its debut in the United States this January. The service is also getting a new Street View capability that can generate interactive landscapes based on real-world locations found on Google Maps, starting with places in the US. Project Genie is Google's AI-powered system for creating explorable snow-globe environments from written prompts, with creations lasting 60 seconds at 720p and 24 fps. Users are able to create contained worlds in whatever style they'd like, complete with a character of their own description, and then move a camera around that space. The fresh Street View functionality allows users to base their AI worlds on location photos pulled from Google Maps, grounding their creations in a snapshot of reality. In a demo video shown at I/O, Google turned the Golden Gate Bridge into an underwater scuba scene, for instance. Google plans to expand the Street View interaction to more real-world locations over time. On the surface and in Google's ads, Project Genie looks like a Cocoon world generator, producing perfect little video game bubbles out of vague written prompts -- but that's not really what's happening here. Project Genie is not a game generator by any means and it's silly to suggest so. Among a suite of technical differences, it ignores the expertise and precision required to create consistent, responsive and bespoke mechanics in persistent and believable worlds, and belies the importance of narrative flow in interactive stories. Project Genie is capable of generating a limited 3D environment with a controllable camera attached to an avatar. This is cool, but it's not game development.

Google DeepMind connects Street View to Project Genie world model | TNW

A simulated street scene generated by Google DeepMind's Project Genie using Street View data Google DeepMind has connected its Project Genie world model to 20 years of Street View imagery, allowing users to wander through AI-generated simulations of real places. The integration, announced at the Google I/O developer conference on Monday, marks one of the most tangible demonstrations yet of what generative world models can do when paired with a colossal real-world dataset. Project Genie, the company's general-purpose system for creating interactive environments, can now draw on more than 280 billion images captured across 110 countries and all seven continents. The result is a tool that lets you drop into a simulated version of, say, a New York City block covered in snow, or a London street bathed in rare sunshine, and navigate it in real time. Genie 3, the latest iteration of the model, first appeared as a research preview in August 2025, part of a broader push by Google to embed AI across its platform stack. In January 2026, DeepMind opened access to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States. The Street View integration is now rolling out to some Ultra users in the US, with a global expansion planned over the coming weeks. Jack Parker-Holder, a research scientist on DeepMind's open-endedness team, framed the feature as serving two distinct audiences. On one hand, robotics developers could use it to train agents in simulated environments that mirror actual locations. On the other, ordinary users could simply explore for fun. The robotics angle is not theoretical. Genie 3 already powers one of Waymo's simulators, where the self-driving car company uses it to train on rare events that would be dangerous or impractical to stage in real life, things like tornadoes or unexpected encounters with elephants on a road. The ability to ground these simulations in actual Street View geography adds another layer of realism. This kind of simulation-to-reality pipeline is becoming a critical bottleneck in physical AI. Companies including Nvidia and Cadence have been racing to close the gap between what robots learn inside computers and how they perform once deployed, and DeepMind's approach of layering generative models on top of real-world imagery offers a distinctive route. Diego Rivas, a product manager at DeepMind, cautioned that the Street View integration remains experimental. The generated environments look closer to a video game than to a photograph, and the model is not yet physics-aware. In one demonstration, a character ran straight through a row of cacti without consequence. Parker-Holder acknowledged the gap directly, estimating that interactive world generation trails video generation by roughly six to 12 months in terms of accuracy. For context, Google's own Veo model already understands basic physics, and its Nano Banana tool can render perfect text in infographics. Genie is not there yet. What does work well, according to Jonathan Herbert, director of Google Maps, is spatial continuity. Turn 360 degrees inside a Genie-generated environment, and the AI remembers what was behind you. It maintains a coherent model of the space rather than regenerating it from scratch with every viewpoint shift. Herbert described this spatial awareness as the real breakthrough. Google has spent two decades capturing the world through Street View, and the Maps team has long considered how to build richer models on top of that data. Genie, it seems, is the answer, or at least the beginning of one. The launch fits within a broader pattern at Google, where the company is steadily threading AI capabilities into products that already have massive user bases. Street View's dataset is a competitive moat that no other AI lab can easily replicate, and connecting it to a generative world model turns a passive mapping tool into something altogether more dynamic. Whether Genie's simulated streets will eventually rival the fidelity of dedicated game engines or professional video production remains to be seen. For now, the feature is a compelling proof of concept, one that hints at a future where the line between navigating a map and exploring a living, AI-generated world becomes increasingly difficult to draw.

Project Genie now lets you reimagine your favorite real-world spots with a creative twist

Google is also expanding access to Project Genie, including the new Street View capabilities, beyond the US to eligible Google AI Ultra $200 subscribers worldwide who are 18 or older. Earlier this year, Google launched Project Genie, an AI model capable of generating diverse, interactive world environments from user prompts. Users can let their imagination go wild with the prompts, but if you want something a bit more grounded in reality, Google is now bringing together Project Genie's generative powers with real-world imagery from Google Maps' Street View. With Project Genie's Street View upgrade, AI agents and robots now have a virtual environment that they can navigate and interact with the complexities of the real world. Users will also be able to leverage real-world imagery to explore their favorite spots, or even reimagine them with a creative twist. Within Project Genie, users can now tap the Maps pin to choose a place in the US. They can then optionally select a style for their world, like "Desert Sands" or "Stone Age." The next step in the process involves describing the character for exploration. Project Genie will use all of this information to create an imaginative world with its starting location tied to Street View's real-world imagery. Street View imagery in Project Genie is now available for places in the US, with plans to expand to more places over time. Alongside the announcement, Google is also expanding access to Project Genie beyond the US. Starting today, Project Genie (including its new Street View capability) will gradually roll out to all eligible Google AI Ultra $200 subscribers worldwide, provided they are 18 years or older. Google notes that Project Genie is still an experimental research prototype in Google Labs. The company continues working behind the scenes to make the details even sharper and more accurate.

Google's interactive world builder, Project Genie, will drop you in real places using Street View

Google just announced its world-exploring game, Project Genie, is getting a new feature that drops you in real-world locations, like your own street. Project Genie rolled out at the beginning of this year. In essence, it builds small worlds using Nana Banana Pro models that can be explored with video-game-like controls. Google has positioned the tool as an experimental research prototype with a first or third-person point of view. Project Genie launched with the capability to generate fictional places, but the latest updates add a touch of realism. Google's new version of Project Genie will get access to Google Street View imagery to start creating worlds based on real places. Google explains: With this upgrade, you'll be able to leverage real-world imagery to explore your favorite spots, or reimagine them with a creative twist... When creating imaginative worlds in Project Genie, you can now also base them on real places. Just tap the Maps pin to choose a place in the U.S. and optionally select a style for your world, like "Desert Sands" or "Stone Age." Then, describe your character - like your favorite animal, comic book hero or even a claymation monster, and Genie will use this information to create an imaginative world with its starting location tied to Street View's real-world imagery. When you begin generating a real location, you're given a set of environments to choose from. A character can be chosen by entering its description. It looks like locations are limited only to images available in Street View, which leaves the possibilities virtually endless. Project Genie will still be limited to users on the AI Ultra tier. The tool takes up a lot of processing power, considering it's developing hundreds of images referenced on each other to create a scene that can be explored at 20-24 frames per second. The clips are limited to 60-second sessions, but it's enough time to get to see familiar places in the same or completely different states of being, using familiar WASD controls. Google says Project Genie with Street View access will be available for users in the US, with plans to expand "over time." The research tool won't be entirely accurate, either. There are plans to make details sharper and more accurate.

You can now walk through AI versions of real places with Google's Project Genie

Google I/O 2026 This story is part of our complete Google I/O coverage Updated less than 3 minutes ago Google is pushing its experimental AI world-building project into surprisingly realistic territory. The company announced that Project Genie can now use real-world imagery from Google Street View to generate interactive virtual environments, blending real locations with imaginative AI-generated styles. At its core, Genie is what Google calls a "world model" -- an AI system capable of creating explorable digital environments where AI agents, robots, or even users can interact naturally. Until now, those worlds were mostly synthetic. But with this new update, Genie can anchor itself to real places pulled directly from Street View imagery. This is actually where things start feeling like a glimpse into the future of simulation. Google wants you to wander through AI daydreams The feature works inside Project Genie, Google's experimental Labs prototype. Users can now select locations in the U.S. using a Maps pin and then transform those places into stylized AI worlds. That means the Golden Gate Bridge can suddenly become an underwater exploration zone filled with sea life, while the Fort Worth Stockyards can be reimagined as a grainy black-and-white version of the 1920s, complete with saloons and vintage cars. Users can also customize the characters exploring these worlds, whether that means turning themselves into a comic book hero, an animal, or even a claymation monster. The interesting part here is not just creativity. It is how Google is teaching AI systems to understand real-world geography and environments through simulation. Google's bigger AI ambition is becoming clear Google says Genie has already been used internally for AI research and even by Waymo to simulate realistic driving environments. Grounding those simulations in Street View data could make future AI training dramatically more practical. Project Genie is rolling out globally to eligible Google AI Ultra subscribers, though Google still considers the platform experimental, which probably explains why the company is being careful not to oversell it just yet.

Simulate real-world places with Project Genie and Street View

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos, but don't worry, you can download it and watch it with your favorite video player! Genie is our general-purpose world model capable of generating diverse, interactive environments. Since launching, Genie has become a foundational tool for research, enabling agents to learn and reason in complex virtual settings and even helping Waymo simulate hyper-realistic road environments. Now, we're taking a leap forward by connecting Genie's generative power with the real-world imagery of Google Street View, allowing our models to anchor themselves in reality. This expansion of Genie's capabilities can provide a virtual environment for AI agents or robots to navigate and interact with the complexities of the real world. Today, we're launching this new Street View grounding capability within Project Genie, our experimental prototype. With this upgrade, you'll be able to leverage real-world imagery to explore your favorite spots, or reimagine them with a creative twist. We're also expanding access to Project Genie to more people around the globe.