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Dubois: Simulations will never fully eliminate the need for real-world AI training

Yann Dubois · OpenAI's Yann Dubois: Why AI Progress Suddenly Feels Real · May 21, 2026 · at 29:54

Yann Dubois, Post-Training Frontiers Co-Lead at OpenAI, explains why world model simulations cannot fully replace real-world physical training for AI systems.

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“The problem is simulations are always going to be really hard and are not going to be truthful. So I think there will always need to be a certain, a little bit of training that will need to happen in the real world to make sure that the model realizes kind of these mismatches between the simulated world and the real world.”

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