Like its rival, Google, Amazon has launched an AI-powered video generator — but it’s only for advertisers at the moment, and somewhat limited in what it can do.
Today at its Accelerate conference, Amazon unveiled Video generator, which turns a product image into a few-seconds-long video clip after several minutes of processing. The company says that Video generator can curate “custom” AI-generated videos that “showcase a product’s features” at no additional cost.
In a statement, Amazon Ads VP Jay Richman said that Video generator, which is currently in beta for select U.S. advertisers, will be fine-tuned over time ahead of a wider release.
“Video generator is another meaningful innovation that leverages generative AI to inspire creativity and deliver more value for both advertisers and shoppers,” Richman said. “We are hard at work delivering generative AI applications that empower advertisers to craft visually stunning, high-performing ads.”
A related new capability announced today, live image, generates short, animated GIFs from a still frame. Also in limited beta, it’s a part of Image generator, Amazon’s AI-powered image generation suite for marketers.
Amazon revealed few technical details about Video generator and live image; it’s not clear, for example, how long and at what maximum resolution generated clips can be. We’ve reached out to the company for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
Amazon’s expansion into generative video comes as others release their own video-generating technologies. AI video startups Runway and Luma released APIs this past week, and Google integrated its flagship video model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts.
As with all generative AI tech, there’s risks to using these tools.
Video-generating models are trained on a vast number of examples of videos to “learn” the patterns in these videos to generate new footage. Some vendors train models on copyrighted videos without obtaining permission from their owners or creators, and, when these models “regurgitate” copyrighted stills, it exposes users to IP lawsuits.
Amazon is one of several generative AI vendors that has said it’ll protect customers accused of violating copyright with media generated by its models, in keeping with its AI indemnification policy. We’ve asked the company if Video generator and live image are covered under that policy.
However the lawsuits pertaining to the legality of training on copyright content shake out, one thing’s becoming clear: Generative AI video tools threaten to upend the film and TV industry as we know it. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimates that by 2026, more than 100,000 of U.S. entertainment jobs will be disrupted by generative AI.
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YouTube creators no longer have to rely solely on the recommendation algorithm, search results, or collabs to help them grow their audience. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, YouTube announced a new feature that will allow a creator’s existing viewers to help “hype” a video with a click of a button, allowing it to climb up a leaderboard of top hyped videos, where it can potentially reach a wider audience.
To work, viewers click on the new “hype” feature below the existing “like” button. The feature will be available on videos from creators with less than 500,000 subscribers. As more people hype the video, it will rank higher on the top 100 hyped videos leaderboard. To prevent fans from abusing the feature to boost their favorite creators, users will be limited to three “hypes” per week for the time being.
The company said it decided to create this feature because it saw that passionate fans wanted to become a part of a creator’s success story.
However, in the future, YouTube says it will allow fans to purchase additional “hypes,” which unlocks a new stream of revenue for the video site. The company didn’t yet share to what extent it will take a cut of those purchases. On other fan purchases like Super Thanks, where revenue is shared with creators, YouTube takes 30% of a standard 70/30 split between creators and itself.
As creators gain “hypes,” they’ll earn points to move up the weekly leaderboard in their country.
Plus, YouTube is offering creators a small bonus that’s built-in for those channels with fewer subscribers that multiplies points to put them on a more level playing field with the larger creators being hyped. Top hyped video will also receive a special badge, the company notes.
“Hype gives the community a way to express the love and excitement they had for up-and-coming creators and to rally around their new videos by hyping them,” said Bangaly Kaba, Director of Product Management at YouTube, speaking at today’s event. He added that, in the future, creators will also be able to see who hyped their videos.
In the first four weeks of beta tests in Turkey, Taiwan, and Brazil, YouTube viewers hyped videos over 5 million times across more than 50,000 channels, YouTube says. The largest age group engaged in hyping videos in the beta was 18 to 24-year-olds, who made up over 30% of all beta users.
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The main attraction of YouTube’s Made On event on Wednesday morning was, you guessed it, artificial intelligence. The company announced that it is integrating Google DeepMind’s AI video generation model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts, letting creators generate high-quality backgrounds as well as 6-second clips.
At Google’s I/O 2024 developer conference, Veo was unveiled as a cutting-edge video generation model. The technology directly competes with OpenAI’s Sora, as well as other rival video generation models, such as Pika, Runway, and Irreverent Labs. It can create 1080p video clips in various cinematic styles.
Veo in Shorts is meant to be a significant upgrade from YouTube’s AI-powered “Dream Screen” feature, which launched in 2023 to allow creators to generate backgrounds in Shorts using text prompts. YouTube believes the Veo model will enhance the video background generation process even further, enabling creators to produce more impressive clips. One of the key advantages of Veo is its capability to edit and remix previously generated footage.
Additionally, this will be the first time creators can generate 6-second-long standalone video clips for Shorts. When creators select “Create” and enter a prompt, Dream Screen will generate four images. They then select a photo to turn it into a video.
The new capability will help creators add filler scenes to their videos, allowing for smoother transitions and tying the overall story together. For example, creators can include scenes such as the New York City skyline at the beginning of a sightseeing video to add more context.
The company will integrate Veo into Dream Screen later this year. The creations on Shorts will be watermarked using DeepMind’s SynthID tech to mark them as AI-generated.
In addition to the Veo integration, the company announced a slew of new features coming to YouTube, including “Jewels” and gifts, digital items that viewers can send during livestreams. This feature seems to be similar to TikTok’s “Gifts.” Jewels is aimed at providing new ways for viewers to interact with creators and actively participate in livestreams. The feature will start rolling out to vertical livestreams in the U.S.
YouTube also expanded its automatic dubbing tool to support more languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Notably, it’s testing the ability to transfer a creator’s tone, intonation, and ambient sounds into dubbed audio, creating a more natural experience.
The company is expanding the availability of its Community hubs to more channels and introducing its “hyping” feature to additional markets. YouTube initially tested its Hype tool in Brazil, Turkey, and Taiwan, allowing users to express support for their favorite creators. Videos with the most hype points are showcased on a special leaderboard.
Additionally, the company revealed during today’s event that creators can now use AI to help brainstorm video ideas within YouTube Studio. They can also produce AI-generated thumbnails and respond to followers with new AI-assisted comments.
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Runway, a startup developing AI video tools, including video-generating models, has partnered with Lionsgate—the studio behind the “John Wick” and “Twilight” franchises—to train a custom video model on Lionsgate’s movie catalog. Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns said in a statement that the studio’s “filmmakers, directors and other creative talent” will get access to the model to “augment their work.”
Runway says it’s also considering ways to license models as templates for individual creators to build and train their own custom models. The company is the first generative AI startup to team up with a major Hollywood studio publicly. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Disney and Paramount have had discussions with generative AI providers, but those talks haven’t yet borne fruit.
Lionsgate and Runway’s deal comes a day after California signed bills restricting the use of AI digital replicas in film and television projects, and as Runway fights a lawsuit alleging the company trained its models on copyrighted works without permission.
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