Odyssey, the startup founded by self-driving industry veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, has unveiled a groundbreaking AI model that streams interactive 3D video in real time — a move that could radically transform the future of entertainment, gaming, and virtual experiences. The company’s early web-based demo gives users the ability to explore AI-generated video environments in a way that feels closer to navigating a video game than watching traditional media.
The model streams new frames every 40 milliseconds, allowing users to control their movement within a scene using basic controls. This enables what Odyssey calls “interactive video,” where the experience changes based on the viewer’s position and actions — effectively turning passive media into an exploratory space.
“Given the current state of the world, an incoming action, and a history of states and actions, the model attempts to predict the next state of the world,” Odyssey explained in a blog post
This advancement is part of a broader push in the AI world toward “world models” — systems that learn the dynamics of physical environments. Similar efforts are underway at DeepMind, Microsoft, Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, and Decart, all exploring how AI can simulate environments for applications ranging from robotics to entertainment.
Introducing AI video you can watch and interact with, in real-time!
— Odyssey (@odysseyml) May 28, 2025
Powering this is a new world model that imagines and streams video frames every 40ms(!). No game engine in sight.
We call it interactive video, and it's free for anyone to try right now (GPUs permitting)! pic.twitter.com/QtADRXCQ8z
Odyssey’s approach is distinctive in that it captures its own training data using a custom-designed, 360-degree backpack-mounted camera system to record real-world landscapes. The company believes this method allows for more realistic and consistent visual outputs compared to models trained purely on publicly available data.
While the current demo shows promise, it also has limitations. The environments are blurry and occasionally distorted, with spatial layouts that can shift unexpectedly. Odyssey acknowledges the rough edges but insists improvements are already underway.
“Looking ahead, we’re researching richer world representations that capture dynamics far more faithfully, while increasing temporal stability and persistent state,” the company said.
“In parallel, we’re expanding the action space from motion to world interaction, learning open actions from large-scale video”
Despite growing concern in creative industries over AI’s impact on jobs, Odyssey is positioning itself as an ally to artists. A recent study by the Animation Guild warned that over 100,000 jobs in U.S. film, TV, and animation could be disrupted by AI in the coming months. Some game studios have already faced backlash for integrating AI tools during rounds of layoffs.
The world played forward, by a model.
— Oliver Cameron (@olivercameron) May 28, 2025
On the one hand, it's calm and serene. On the other, it's chaotic and terrifying.
I think the model nailed it in both cases. pic.twitter.com/vuszeL9p0V
Odyssey, however, is taking a different stance. “Interactive video … opens the door to entirely new forms of entertainment, where stories can be generated and explored on demand, free from the constraints and costs of traditional production,” the company wrote. It has also pledged to collaborate with creatives and support traditional tools — even announcing work on software that allows creators to edit AI-generated scenes in platforms like Unreal Engine, Blender, and Adobe After Effects.
The startup has raised $27 million from backers including EQT Ventures, GV, and Air Street Capital. Among its board members is Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios — a noteworthy endorsement for a company aiming to reimagine how stories are told.
Streaming at up to 30 frames per second using Nvidia H100 GPUs, Odyssey’s model currently costs $1–2 per user-hour to run. The technology may still be in its infancy, but with rapid iteration promised and a compelling vision ahead, Odyssey is setting its sights on the frontier of a new kind of immersive digital media.
