I could've been an awesome Dungeon Master

When I saw Google Deepmind’s Genie 3, my first thought wasn’t about the deep tech.

It was: “Holy heck, I could’ve been an awesome Dungeon Master.”

Growing up, D&D was where I learned to build worlds and explore identities. If you’ll allow me to be vulnerable — it was a safe place to explore the nuance of being.

Being the DM meant carrying the weight of entire universes in your head.

You were breathing life into worlds, making split-second decisions that could turn a throwaway NPC into a beloved character or a random cave into the site of legendary battles or comical scenarios.

I’m still not sure if that responsibility shaped who I’ve become, or if I gravitated to it because world-building was already in my DNA.

But here’s what I know: Google’s new World Models in Genie 3 generate environments that are alive; navigable, real-time and persistent.

Imagine “Minecrafting” a photorealistic space, then walking or flying through it.

This is the first time I’ve looked at VR headsets and thought: “Maybe.”

Six months ago, I couldn’t do half of what I’m doing today with AI. In a year, my daughter and I will be creating one-minute videos that would’ve cost a studio budget to produce.

In two years? We might be making entire shows.

But here’s what keeps me up at night: My five-year-old daughter will be able to tell stories by age 10 that would cost millions to produce today.

Not in some distant future. We’re talking — conservatively — five years.

The creative floodgates aren’t just opening — they’re being blown off their hinges. Every kid with an imagination will have Hollywood-grade production at their fingertips. Every dreamer will be a world-builder. Every story locked in someone’s head will have a path to existence.

The brakes are coming off. For good or bad, what’s coming will transform us all.

But maybe that’s exactly what we need. Because in a world where everyone can be a Dungeon Master, the only limit is how brave we are with our imagination.