{"id":1172025,"date":"2026-05-26T08:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-project&#038;p=1172025"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:47:09","slug":"wham","status":"publish","type":"msr-project","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/wham\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAM"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"mb-3 moray-highlight\">\n\t<div class=\"card-img-overlay mx-lg-0\">\n\t\t<div class=\"card-background  has-background- card-background--full-bleed\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2019\" height=\"1218\" src=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"a screenshot of a video game\" style=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image.png 2019w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image-1024x618.png 1024w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image-768x463.png 768w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image-1536x927.png 1536w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hero-Image-240x145.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2019px) 100vw, 2019px\" \/>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<!-- Foreground -->\n\t\t<div class=\"card-foreground d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 px-g px-lg-0\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Container -->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 \">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Card wrapper -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-100 w-lg-col-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- Card -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card material-md-card py-5 px-md-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-body \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"wham-world-and-human-action-models\">WHAM: World and Human Action Models&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlocking new forms of creative expression and ushering in the future of interactive media&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/aka.ms\/muse-quakeii-whamm\">Play WHAM-RT in Copilot Labs<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-08600-3\">Read the Nature publication<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>World and Human Action Models, or WHAM for short, are a family of generative AI models that capture both the environment (\u201cworld\u201d) and human actions to produce interactive, coherent sequences of visuals and controller actions. Developed as part of the Muse research program, WHAM presents&nbsp;a new design&nbsp;material, unlocking new forms of creative expression and ushering in the future of interactive media.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The family currently includes two models:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/wham\/wham\/\">WHAM<\/a> \u2014 our first World and Human Action Model, published in Nature (2025).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/wham\/wham-rt\/\">WHAM-RT<\/a> \u2014 our real-time World and Human Action Model, playable now in Copilot Labs.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The project is a close collaboration between&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/theme\/people-centric-ai\/\">People-Centric AI&nbsp;<\/a>group&nbsp;at<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Microsoft Research&nbsp;and&nbsp;Xbox Game Studios&#8217; Ninja Theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><em>Our first World and Human Action Model&nbsp;published&nbsp;in Nature in 2025.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WHAM is the first instance of the World and Human Action Model. Trained on more than one billion images and controller actions from Ninja Theory&#8217;s Bleeding Edge,&nbsp;the equivalent of over seven years of continuous human gameplay,&nbsp;WHAM can generate complex, consistent gameplay sequences spanning several minutes from a one-second prompt. WHAM can be used in world-model mode (predicting how the game evolves), action-model mode (generating plausible controller actions), or both.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Video playback requires cookie consent\" data-video-id=\"pclsvLeTjjw\" data-poster=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/pclsvLeTjjw\/maxresdefault.jpg\"><iframe aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"World and Human Action Models towards gameplay ideation (Supplementary Video 1)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/pclsvLeTjjw?feature=oembed&rel=0&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__overlay\"><button class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__play\"><svg width=\"42\" height=\"42\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><circle fill=\"#000\" opacity=\".556\" cx=\"21\" cy=\"21\" r=\"21\"\/><path stroke=\"#FFF\" d=\"M27.5 22l-12 8.5v-17z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><span class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__label\">Video playback requires cookie consent<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Several-minute gameplay sequences generated by Muse from a 1-second prompt of real Bleeding Edge gameplay.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"try-the-model\">Try the model<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-pill\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/ai.azure.com\/explore\/models\/Muse\/version\/1\/registry\/azureml\">Get Muse on Azure AI Foundry<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Includes model weights, sample data, and the WHAM Demonstrator concept prototype.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"read-the-paper\">Read the paper<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nature (2025) \u2014&nbsp;<\/em><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-08600-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">World and Human Action Models towards gameplay ideation<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Kanervisto, A., Bignell, D., Wen, L. Y. et al.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"read-the-announcement\">Read the announcement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Microsoft Research blog (2025) \u2014&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/blog\/introducing-muse-our-first-generative-ai-model-designed-for-gameplay-ideation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Introducing Muse: our first generative AI model designed for gameplay ideation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><em>Our real-time World and Human Action Model, now available to play&nbsp;as a technical demo&nbsp;in Copilot Labs.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WHAM-RT (World and Human Action Model \u2014 Real Time) is our real-time WHAM. By moving from autoregressive token-by-token generation to a&nbsp;MaskGIT-based approach, WHAM-RT generates visuals at 10+ frames per second,&nbsp;fast enough to play inside the model in real time. WHAM-RT also transferred the WHAM recipe to a new game, Quake II, using only one week of carefully curated gameplay data (compared to the seven years used for Muse), and doubled the output resolution to 640\u00d7360. WHAM-RT powers&nbsp;an interactive technical demo&nbsp;available to&nbsp;play&nbsp;in Copilot Labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"try-it-now\">Try it now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-pill\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">Play WHAM-RT Quake II in CoPilot Labs<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"read-the-article\">Read the article<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Microsoft Research blog (2025) \u2014<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/articles\/whamm-real-time-world-modelling-of-interactive-environments\/\">WHAMM! Real-time world modelling of interactive environments.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:37px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 720 \/ 720;\" width=\"720\" controls src=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/vid1_square.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 720 \/ 720;\" width=\"720\" controls src=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/vid2_square.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 720 \/ 720;\" width=\"720\" controls src=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/vid3_square.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlocking new forms of creative expression and ushering in the future of interactive media&nbsp; World and Human Action Models, or WHAM for short, are a family of generative AI models that capture both the environment (\u201cworld\u201d) and human actions to produce interactive, coherent sequences of visuals and controller actions. Developed as part of the Muse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1172647,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1172025","msr-project","type-msr-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-locale-en_us","msr-archive-status-active"],"msr_project_start":"","related-publications":[1106502,1138088],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[1131126,1172650,1172656],"related-groups":[],"related-events":[],"related-opportunities":[],"related-posts":[954777,1122837],"related-articles":[],"tab-content":[],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Linda Yilin Wen","user_id":44181,"people_section":"Related people","alias":"a-yilinwen"}],"msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_impact_theme":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1172025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-project"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1172025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173503,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1172025\/revisions\/1173503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1172647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1172025"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1172025"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1172025"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1172025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}