Roblox looks towards "4D generative AI" future

• Roblox has plans to build 4D generative AI, with the foundational tools already in place
• To Roblox, 4D means the interactions between elements of an object

Roblox is looking to take its artificial intelligence capabilities to the next level with "4D generative AI".

The company stated this fourth dimension means interaction. In practice, this will mean creating objects through generative AI that can interact with one another dynamically.

Achieving this 4D evolution will require a multimodal understanding of an object’s appearance, shape, physics, and scripts.

4D on the way

Roblox has been providing its 77 million daily players with generative AI tools for well over a year now and saw 50% more materials generated in the suite’s first three months. The current AI tools offer the ability to create material appearances, scripts, texture mapping and body motion, which Roblox considers enhancements of the "3D creative process".

"Across the industry, 1D and 2D are state of the art, and 3D is at the cutting edge of generative AI," Roblox chief scientist Morgan McGuire shared in a blog post.

"Each is an increasingly significant challenge that continually drives exciting technical advances. As we live in 3D space, it may seem like that is the ultimate generative AI challenge. However, based on the needs of our community, our vision for this work extends even further."

So, with the foundational tools already in place, Roblox is now looking towards 4D - the interaction between people, objects, and environments.

It aims to build AI tools that understand the individual parts within objects. For example, that a car isn’t one fixed item, but the product of an engine, wheels, and more - so that elements can function independently and with other objects, at scale, with individual modifiers.

"Industry-wide challenge"

"To bring a creator’s idea to life, we need a faster, easier way to communicate and refine, essentially collaborating with an AI assistant that’s more of a partner and less of a scavenger hunt," added McGuire.

"This is an industry-wide challenge, and many companies are working to bring greater controllability into generative AI. As we begin to solve the challenges on this road to 4D, our creators will be able to create more, faster."

Just as generative AI capabilities were being rolled out last year, we spoke with Roblox Studios head Stefano Corazza about using this technology to democratise content and empower more people to create.

As of June 2nd, 2024, approximately 535 million characters of code have been suggested by the AI-powered Code Assist alone.