Alibaba Launches Happy Oyster AI World Model for Real-Time Virtual Scene Creation

Gate News message, April 17 — Alibaba unveiled Happy Oyster, an AI world model designed for creating and interacting with virtual worlds in real time, a day after World Labs introduced Spark 2.0. The product enables users to build scenes from text and image prompts, generate video clips of up to three minutes, and receive new instructions during creation.

Happy Oyster, previously developed under the name HappyHorse-1.0 by Alibaba's ATH Innovation Division, features two primary modes. The "Directing" mode allows users to adjust plot elements and camera angles while video is being generated, producing up to three minutes of continuous video at 480p or 720p resolution. The "Wandering" mode supports first-person exploration of generated worlds using standard keyboard and camera controls.

The launch reflects Alibaba's broader strategy to expand its AI capabilities beyond language models into systems that can learn from and understand physical reality. The move positions Alibaba in closer competition with rivals including Tencent and its world model HY-World 2.0, as companies vie for revenue opportunities in AI-generated interactive content for gaming and film applications.