Deconstructor of Fun 310. Pim De Witte on Turning Down $500 Million from OpenAI... Then Raising $134M.
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Oct 31, 2025 
Pim De Witte, founder of General Intuition and Medal.tv, shares his bold decision to decline a $500 million offer from OpenAI to focus on a game-centric AI lab. He discusses how world models could revolutionize game engines and the unique role games play in developing intelligent systems. De Witte emphasizes the changing landscape of game design, where designers will evolve into world creators, and explores the strategic need for AI integration early in gaming studios to thrive in a competitive market.
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Turning Down Frontier Labs To Protect Games
- Pim de Witte declined joining frontier labs because he wanted to protect and represent the games industry.
- He believed Metal.tv uniquely held the data and energy to build a games-rooted AI lab instead of joining others.
Building Tools Not Replacements
- General Intuition builds systems to help game developers ship better games rather than replace them.
- Pim frames the mission as empowering intelligent players, NPCs, and tooling inside the games industry.
World Models vs. Video Models
- World models generate possible future outcomes conditioned on actions, unlike video models that predict a single next frame.
- This action-observation understanding is crucial for interactive agents that need spatial-temporal reasoning.