mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Wow, wo, val! A Comprehensive Embodied World Model Evaluation Turing Test

arXiv 2601.04137 ↗First posted 7 Jan 2026cs.RO cs.AI cs.CVcited by 11

On the map: World models → World models for navigation

Abstract (arXiv)

As world models gain momentum in Embodied AI, an increasing number of works explore using video foundation models as predictive world models for downstream embodied tasks like 3D prediction or interactive generation. However, before exploring these downstream tasks, video foundation models still have two critical questions unanswered: (1) whether their generative generalization is sufficient to maintain perceptual fidelity in the eyes of human observers, and (2) whether they are robust enough to serve as a universal prior for real-world embodied agents. To provide a standardized framework for answering these questions, we introduce the Embodied Turing Test benchmark: WoW-World-Eval (Wow,wo,val). Building upon 609 robot manipulation data, Wow-wo-val examines five core abilities, including perception, planning, prediction, generalization, and execution. We propose a comprehensive evaluation protocol with 22 metrics to assess the models' generation ability, which achieves a high Pearson Correlation between the overall score and human preference (>0.93) and establishes a reliable foundation for the Human Turing Test. On Wow-wo-val, models achieve only 17.27 on long-horizon planning and at best 68.02 on physical consistency, indicating limited spatiotemporal consistency and physical reasoning. For the Inverse Dynamic Model Turing Test, we first use an IDM to evaluate the video foundation models' execution accuracy in the real world. However, most models collapse to ≈ 0% success, while WoW maintains a 40.74% success rate. These findings point to a noticeable gap between the generated videos and the real world, highlighting the urgency and necessity of benchmarking World Model in Embodied AI.

Key facts. Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in World models for navigation, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 71 of its 137 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2026.

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71 of 137 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025A Comprehensive Survey on World Models for Embodied AI19 Oct
  2. 2025A Survey: Learning Embodied Intelligence from Physical Simulators and World Models1 Jul
  3. 2025Embodied AI Agents: Modeling the World27 Jun

Other references · 68

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 11.

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  1. 2026Do World Models Make Better Robots? A Survey of Evaluation Benchmarks for Predictive Embodied Intelligence
  2. 2024WorldSimBench: Towards Video Generation Models as World Simulators
  3. 2025WorldLens: Full-Spectrum Evaluations of Driving World Models in Real World
  4. 2025World-in-World: World Models in a Closed-Loop World
  5. 2026How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Position
  6. 2026Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Survey
  7. 2026Video2World: Benchmarking Coding Agents for Interactive World Modeling from Embodied Videos
  8. 2026WorldSimProbe: Diagnosing Simulator Faithfulness in Action-Conditioned World Models for Embodied Manipulation