Project Genie: Walk Through Street View Worlds Built by AI

Project Genie is Google’s playable-world experiment, and it just got its biggest upgrade yet: with the new Genie 4 model rolling into it, Ultra subscribers in more than 140 countries, Canada included, can generate and walk through explorable 3D worlds inspired by real Google Street View locations. Type where you want to be, and an AI-built version of it assembles around you in real time, with physics, memory and now native audio. It started as a Google Labs experiment in January and has quietly become the first consumer product built on a world model.

Our team tested the waters on what is confirmed versus what is still rolling out, because this one moves fast. Here is what Project Genie is, how the Street View piece works, and what it takes to try it from Canada.

What is Project Genie?

Project Genie is the product wrapper around DeepMind’s Genie world models. Where a video generator gives you a clip, Genie gives you a place: type a prompt and a 3D world assembles as you move through it, keeping coherence as you go. You can reshape it live, change the weather, add characters, move the camera, and the world keeps running. With Genie 4 coming into the engine, worlds gain native audio and directed events with real cause and effect; the full breakdown is in our guide to Google Genie 4.

The timeline tells you how quickly Google moved this from lab to product. Project Genie opened to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States in late January 2026. At Google I/O that May, the Street View integration arrived, grounding the worlds in real locations. Through September and October, coverage tracked deeper Street View data and now the Genie 4 engine, with availability spread across more than 140 countries for Ultra subscribers.

The Street View part: walking through real places, sort of

The Street View integration is the feature that makes this click for most people. Instead of generating a fantasy landscape, you can start from real-world locations, a Toronto intersection, a coastal road on Cape Breton, a market street anywhere the cameras have been, and explore an AI-reconstructed, interactive version of it. The world model uses Street View imagery as inspiration and grounding, then fills in everything the cameras never captured: interiors, side alleys, moving crowds, weather.

Set expectations honestly, because Google does. Real places come out recognisable but not geographically perfect; the model cannot yet simulate a real location with precise accuracy. Details drift during longer sessions, and runs last a few minutes at a time. Think of it as a dream version of a place rather than a scan of it, which is honestly the more interesting product.

What it costs in Canada

Project Genie is included with a Google AI Ultra subscription and only that tier, and Canada is a supported region in both English and French. There is no free tier and no Pro-tier access. The two Ultra plans run $139.99 per month (Ultra 5x, 20 TB of storage) and $279.99 per month (Ultra 20x, 30 TB) before tax; both include Genie access, with the higher tier buying more usage headroom across the Gemini family. The full comparison, including which features are US-only, is in our guide to Google AI Ultra in Canada.

How to try Project Genie from Canada

• Subscribe to Google AI Ultra ($139.99 or $279.99 per month in Canada, depending on tier) through Google One or the Gemini app.
• Open Project Genie from your Google account’s Labs or Gemini interface, where it appears for eligible Ultra accounts.
• Prompt a place: start from a text description or a real location for Street View-inspired worlds, then reshape the world live with follow-up prompts.
• Know the limits: a few minutes per session, visual drift on long runs, and SynthID watermarking on everything generated.

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