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[ARTICLE · art-51496] src=techcrunch.com ↗ pub= topic=artificial-intelligence verified=true sentiment=· neutral

Why this CEO thinks video games make better training data than the internet

General Intuition, a Bezos-backed startup valued at $2.3 billion, raised $320 million to train AI agents using video game data, arguing that gaming data better teaches models about physical movement and spatial reasoning than internet text. CEO Pim de Witte discussed the company's approach on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, highlighting the potential for world models to advance physical AI and the ethical considerations of defense applications.

read1 min views1 publishedJul 8, 2026
Why this CEO thinks video games make better training data than the internet
Image: TechCrunch AI

When it comes to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), large language models just don’t have what it takes. Models like ChatGPT and Claude are great at text, but they’re less skilled at understanding how things actually move through space and time — an essential skill for producing intelligence that generalizes. That gap, it turns out, might be filled by gaming data. That’s the bet behind General Intuition, a Bezos-backed, New York-based startup valued at $2.3 billion that just closed a $320 million round with Coatue, Eric Schmidt, and researchers at MIT and Google DeepMind joining its list of investors.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, General Intuition CEO Pim de Witte joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into why world models trained on gaming data might be the next big leap in physical AI, how the company spun out of gaming platform Medal TV, and where the ethical red lines are when your models could end up being used for defense applications.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

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