Model release

WHAM 1.6B (Muse)

WHAM 1.6B (Muse) is an open-weight model release in the Muse (Microsoft Research WHAM) family from Microsoft Research1, version WHAM 1.6B v1, released Feb 19, 2025. Its weights can be downloaded by the public3 1 2 under the Microsoft Research License Terms2 1.

WHAM 1.6B is the larger of the two World and Human Action Model checkpoints Microsoft Research released for Muse. It pairs a VQ-GAN image tokenizer with a transformer trained from scratch to predict game visuals and controller actions. The same repository includes a 200M-parameter checkpoint for lighter experiments.1

Model hub: Model card (Hugging Face) (external site: huggingface.co)
License: License (Microsoft Research License Terms) (external site: huggingface.co)
Dataset hub: Sample gameplay data (external site: huggingface.co)
Paper: Nature paper (external site: nature.com)

On AI on Hugging Face: microsoft/bleeding-edge-gameplay-sample

Last reviewedSep 29, 2026Entry updated Sep 29, 2026Documented release Feb 19, 2025

Availability and license

Overall availability

Public

Checkpoints can be downloaded from Hugging Face without a gated access request, but the license allows only non-commercial research use and forbids redistributing the models. Microsoft released the weights in February 2025 along with the WHAM Demonstrator and sample data.3 2 4

Availability fact review: not separately recorded

Availability is separate from permission: read the license before using or redistributing.

Microsoft Research License Terms (external site: huggingface.co)2 1
Applies to: Everything in the release · custom license (no SPDX identifier) · fact-level rights review not recorded

The Microsoft Research License covers the source code, object code, models, and data in the release. It allows use only for non-commercial, non-revenue-generating research. Licensees may modify the source code but may not distribute the code, models, or data. They may not host the materials as a stand-alone service for others or reverse engineer them. Published results may not include substantial portions of the materials. U.S. users are bound to individual arbitration. The model card asks users not to remove watermark and provenance metadata from generated images.2 1

Component reuse rights

A readable or downloadable component is not automatically reusable. These indicators concern recorded license evidence, not system certification.

weights: Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
code: Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
data: Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
documentation: Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review

No complete system-rights review is recorded for this release.

Model-disclosure tier

Computed from the checklist below using USASI rubric v0.2. An editorial category, not a certification.

Open-weight

The model parameters for this release can be downloaded by the public. License terms may still restrict use, redistribution, or commercial use.

The weights are under a license that is not on the rubric's OSI-approved list. Read its terms before use.

How tiers are computed

Public materials checklist

Items for a model under USASI rubric v0.2. Unknown means unassessed or insufficient evidence.

Public materials checklist for WHAM 1.6B (Muse)
Item	Status	Notes and evidence
WeightsCan the general public download the model parameters for this release?	Public	WHAM 1.6B and 200M checkpoints are published without gating, under a research-only, non-commercial license.3 1 2
Inference codeIs code for running the model published?	Public	The repository includes setup scripts and a run_dreaming.py script for local inference, plus the WHAM Demonstrator application.1
Training codeIs the code used to train the model published?	Unknown	Not assessed.
Training-data informationDoes the information cover provenance, scope, acquisition, selection, labeling, processing, and where data or alternatives can be obtained? Access alone does not establish completeness.	Unknown	Not assessed.
Training-data accessCan the training data be obtained? This is independent of information completeness and reuse rights; original unshareable data need not be downloadable.	Unknown	Not assessed.
Complete training pipelineIs the complete base-training and preprocessing pipeline published, including configuration? Fine-tuning code or an inference SDK alone is insufficient.	Unknown	Not assessed.
Legacy data assessment (v0.1)Historical assessment combining download access and disclosure. Preserved for traceability; excluded from the v0.2 tier calculation. See the new separate assessments above.	Partial	The model card describes about 500,000 Bleeding Edge games (more than 1 billion observation-action pairs at 10 Hz) from anonymized gameplay by 27,990 players. Only a sample, the evaluation test data, is published.1
Training recipeAre the training configuration and procedure documented in enough detail to follow?	Unknown	Not assessed.
Evaluation materialsPublic = evaluation code or prompts that let others re-run the evaluations are published. Partial = results only.	Partial	The model card describes the evaluation measures (FVD for consistency, Wasserstein distance for diversity, and persistency tests) and publishes the test data sample. Detailed results are in the Nature paper.1

What it is useful for

The model card describes academic research use, such as generating plausible gameplay sequences for the game Bleeding Edge in world-modelling, behavior-policy, or combined modes. It is not intended to generate imagery outside that game.1

Run and use notes

Documented facts only. No hardware or performance claims are made without a cited source and stated assumptions.

The model card documents a setup script that creates a Python 3.9 environment. It says testing was done on Ubuntu 20.04 (natively and under WSL2 on Windows 11) with NVIDIA RTX A6000 and A100 GPUs, and that a CUDA-capable GPU is assumed for inference.1

Organization context

Microsoft

Provenance and derivatives

The model card says both components were trained from scratch by Microsoft Research on gameplay data from Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge.1

Other releases in the Muse (Microsoft Research WHAM) family

No other releases in this family have been assessed.

Muse (Microsoft Research WHAM) family overview

What this catalog does not know

Unknown means the sources reviewed for this record do not document it. It is not evidence that something does not exist.

Training code: unknown.
Training-data information: unknown.
Training-data access: unknown.
Complete training pipeline: unknown.
Training recipe: unknown.

Have a primary source? How to report a correction.

U.S. eligibility

Project eligibility rests on documented governing or maintaining entities, not on contributors.

Eligible · basis: U.S. headquarters

The model card says WHAM was developed by the Game Intelligence group at Microsoft Research, and the license is an agreement with Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft lists Redmond, Washington as its address on its Form 10-K cover page.1 2 5

Assessed Sep 29, 2026

Sources

1.
World and Human Action Model (WHAM) model card (microsoft/wham) (external site: huggingface.co)
Microsoft (Hugging Face) · Model card · accessed Sep 29, 2026
2.
Microsoft Research License Terms (microsoft/wham LICENSE.md) (external site: huggingface.co)
Microsoft (Hugging Face) · License · accessed Sep 29, 2026
3.
microsoft/wham repository metadata (external site: huggingface.co)
Hugging Face · Repository · accessed Sep 29, 2026
4.
Introducing Muse: Our first generative AI model designed for gameplay ideation (external site: microsoft.com)
Microsoft Research · Announcement · published Feb 19, 2025 · accessed Sep 29, 2026
5.
Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 (external site: sec.gov)
Microsoft Corporation (U.S. SEC filing) · Filing · published Jul 29, 2026 · accessed Sep 29, 2026

Email a correction Report a correction Edit this entry

This listing is not an endorsement, a safety assessment, or a federal approval.

Cite this page

APA style

USASI. (2026, September 29). WHAM 1.6B (Muse). United States of America Superintelligence. https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/wham-1-6b/

BibTeX

@misc{usasi_wham_1_6b,
  author = {{USASI}},
  title = {WHAM 1.6B (Muse)},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  howpublished = {\url{https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/wham-1-6b/}},
  note = {United States of America Superintelligence. Last updated 2026-09-29}
}

The date is when this page was last updated. Add the date you read it if your style needs one.

For maintainers: a “Listed in USASI” badge

Links to this page. It says the entry is listed, not endorsed or rated. About the badge

Markdown (for a README)

[![Listed in the USASI catalog](https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/badges/listed.svg)](https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/wham-1-6b/)

HTML

<a href="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/wham-1-6b/"><img src="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/badges/listed.svg" alt="Listed in the USASI catalog" height="20"></a>