The Rise of AI-Built Realities

I’ve long believed that the future of interactive experiences isn’t about playing inside someone else’s design —
but living inside worlds that form around you, in real time.

Not just open worlds.
Open, AI-generated realities.

This idea naturally echoes the concept of The Matrix.
But this isn’t about conspiracy — or whether we’re already living in a simulation.
Because regardless of the answer, we’re now building the tools to create simulations of our own —
worlds that adapt to our preferences, behaviors, and imagination.

So what happens when a world no longer needs to be manually designed,
but is generated by a model interpreting your inputs?

Who defines the rules then?
Who’s in control — you, or the system?
Or is that distinction starting to fade?

The release of Genie 3 — Google DeepMind’s new world model — sparked this reflection.
Not just because it’s a technical leap,
but because it’s a philosophical one.

Genie 3 is a model that can generate interactive, playable worlds — not from code,
but from a single image or a text prompt.

And while it may seem like a small step in the broader AI space,
it’s a major leap in how we think about experience, autonomy, and digital environments.

It raises questions far beyond gaming:

What defines reality when AI can simulate one in milliseconds?
What happens when your inner world becomes the world around you?
What happens when your imagination truly becomes the only limit?

And maybe the deepest question of all:
If you were born into a world like that, would you even know it was synthetic?

When everything feels consistent, alive, and made just for you —
how do you know where the system ends and you begin?

We’re entering a time where the boundaries between imagination and experience are collapsing.
And to me, that’s not just exciting.
It’s profound.

To tweak a famous quote:
One small step for AI, one giant leap for mankind.

I’m August Segerholm — Creative Director and founder of Human, a multidisciplinary agency focused on what it means to build, design, and create in a time of technological transformation.
I’m also part of a team developing a holistic AI health startup, currently in stealth mode.

I’ll be exploring what AI unlocks creatively, philosophically, and practically — so if these ideas resonate, feel free to follow along or reach out.