# World Models, Explained

An episode of [Y Combinator Startup Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1236907421), 17 Jul 2026, 1 h 14 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/8c1524bc/podcast/play/122964783/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-6-17%2F428135155-44100-2-ab08c297ef593.mp3

Why do even our best AI models need tens of thousands of examples to learn skills that a human picks up in a handful of tries?Solving this problem is one of the great open challenges in modern AI. World models, which give AI an internal simulation of its environment, are one of the most promising paths forward.In this episode of Decoded, YC's Ankit Gupta and Francois Chaubard discuss the intuition and math behind world models, new research, and current applications in self-driving, robotics, and more. Full Transcript: https://ycrootaccess.substack.com/p/world-models-an-intuitive-introduction

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