by Brendan Clementz

Oasis, a generative AI model created by the AI companies Etched and Decart, became viral online, especially on X (formerly known as Twitter), for being “the first AI game,” trained entirely on millions of hours of Minecraft gameplay footage. The “game” has come under scrutiny for its lack of objective and originality.

https://twitter.com/etched/status/1852089772329869436?s=46

Oasis is currently free-to-play for anyone who can run it, but it can’t really be played. Since there is no code implemented to create the game, no goals can be set, so the player is essentially walking around and watching the world morph and change at random.

One area quickly melts into another, and the inventory is practically useless. @TeridaxDev said,

theres a lot of really interesting problems to solve here. like how do we make the AI remember where blocks are placed?

and then you think about it for 2 seconds and the answer to every problem is "program Minecraft normally". so what is the point of AI here. why does this exist https://t.co/5qnxfjJ3K7

— 🦇 Holly 🦇 Teridax.bsky.social (@TeridaxDev) November 3, 2024

This sentiment is echoed throughout replies to the announcement. 

Despite how it looks, Oasis “plays” wildly differently than Minecraft. See links for a demonstration.

This demo is a demonstration of the generative AI behind it, meaning that it is supposed to be fed other games’ data in order to create different things. Naturally, this opens it up to the same copyright concerns that already exist for generative AI, bringing even more negative attention from gaming companies than ever before.