Chatbot platform Character.AI is rolling out its video generator, AvatarFX, in general release after a month in closed beta. It’s also adding a sharing feature called Scenes and Streams that will serve content to Character.AI’s community feed, coming soon to mobile. Users can now tap AvatarFX to create up to five videos per day, starting by uploading a photo, choosing a voice and writing dialogue for the character. Character.AI started as 1:1 text chat in the summer of 2023. Now the company is “expanding into a multi-modal world” with “more ways for creators to build immersive narratives and dynamic experiences.” Continue reading Character.AI Goes Wide with AvatarFX, Adds Mobile Features

China’s Manus AI has unveiled a text-to-video generator it says can transform “prompts into complete stories — structured, sequenced, and ready to watch. With a single prompt, Manus plans each scene, crafts the visuals, and animates your vision,” the company announced last week. Manus generated buzz in March for its agentic approach to AI, and now it is putting that autonomous technology to work on generative AI, promising story generation within minutes. Last month, the firm that developed Manus, Butterfly Effect, reportedly secured $75 million in funding led by U.S.-based Benchmark for a nearly $500 million valuation. Continue reading Manus AI Takes an Agentic Approach with Its Video Generator

AMC Networks has partnered with Runway to use the AI startup’s models and technology in the TV studio’s marketing and development processes. The Cablevision-owned AMC Networks brand — home to cable TV hits such as “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” that have found new audiences on the AMC+ streaming service — plans to use AI in everything from identifying key scenes for promotional use to ideating new ideas, previsualization and special effects. Lionsgate entered a similar deal with Runway last year that had the reciprocal benefit of allowing the AI company to use the studio’s content to train models. Continue reading AMC Networks the Latest to Partner with Runway for AI Tools

Bytedance-owned social video platform TikTok is improving ways in which users can customize their For You feed, letting them increase emphasis on subjects of interest with Manage Topics and adding AI-powered Smart Keyword Filters to suppress content they don’t want to see. While the social platform has featured keyword filters for some time, the new filters are smart enough to catch a broader range of unwanted content. Users can now include up to 200 filtering keywords and let AI do the rest “to capture additional videos featuring similar words, synonyms and slang variations” that reduce unwanted content in the For You feed. Continue reading TikTok Adds Features Letting Users Fine-Tune ‘For You’ Feed

ByteDance-owned TikTok is officially launching its TikTok for Artists music insights tool two months after reports surfaced that the service was testing the resource in select countries. Billed as an “all-in-one” analytics platform, the company says TikTok for Artists provides detailed data about the performance of an artist’s music and posts on TikTok, as well as insights into how the community is engaging with the performer’s content. In addition to providing actionable marketing support, the tool is designed to help artists boost fan engagement and inform content creation. TikTok is also launching a new Pre-Release tool designed to help artists promote upcoming material. Continue reading TikTok for Artists: New Analytics Platform Gets Official Launch

Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg has thrown his support behind an AI advertising startup called Creatify, leading its Series A round with $1.5 million via WndrCo. Katzenberg is also taking a board seat at the two-year-old firm, which claims more than 1.5 million global users and 10,000 teams using its tech to create social media-centric video ads, leveraging AI avatars and real-time testing. Marketing teams can use its tools to “spin up high-quality video creative in minutes (not weeks),” the company claims, mentioning a client that uses Creatify to generate 1,000-plus ads per month. Continue reading Katzenberg’s WndrCo Invests $1.5M in AI Ad Startup Creatify

Twitch is upgrading its presentation capabilities with the addition of vertical viewing and dual-format streaming. The popular Amazon-owned gaming platform is also adding 2K video in open beta for all partners and affiliates, broadening accessibility for high-definition formats. In January 2024, Twitch began experimenting with HD including 4K, which remains in closed beta for select users. The format tests were part of Twitch’s Enhanced Broadcast initiative with Nvidia and OBS Studio, purveyor of the open broadcaster format. Creators with access to Enhanced Broadcasting in Twitch Studio can use dual formatting to simultaneously stream in horizontal and vertical formats. Continue reading Twitch Announces New Features to Enhance Mobile Viewing

Google is celebrating 10 years of Google Photos by introducing a redesign of the Photos editor, including helpful new tools. The Photos editor gets some AI editing features previously available only on Pixel phones as part of its generative AI Magic Editor. The Photos platform is also expanding access to its AI-powered text-to-image Reimagine and automatic framing and related features first introduced with the Pixel 9. The company explains there are currently more than 1.5 billion monthly Photos users that have stored 9+ trillion photos and videos. The updates reflect Google’s AI push as it continues to integrate Gemini across its growing family of products and services. Continue reading Google Photos Rolling Out Redesign and New AI Editing Tools

YouTube is integrating Google Lens, allowing viewers to search elements of what they see while watching YouTube Shorts. The visual search enhancement aims to provide more ways to unearth information and discover content in an interactive, intuitive way. YouTube provides an example involving a Short filmed on location that features landmarks a viewer may be interested in visiting. In this example, users could ask Google Lens for related information to learn the name of the destination and helpful details regarding its culture and history, results that would appear over the video content as a visual overlay. YouTube began rolling out the Lens feature in beta to all viewers last week. Continue reading YouTube Shorts Powers New Visual Search with Google Lens

Artificial intelligence startup Odyssey, which turns two this year, has unveiled an interactive streaming AI video model. Available on the web in research preview, the model generates video streams every 40 milliseconds that viewers can navigate through — much like interacting with a 3D-rendered video game using either a keyboard, game controller or smartphone. Odyssey describes the current experience as similar to “exploring a glitchy dream” and says that while “utility is limited for now” its breakthrough is based on the fact that “improvements won’t be driven by hand-built game engines, but rather by models and data.” Continue reading Odyssey’s AI World Modeling Engine Streams Interactive 3D

Google is in a filmmaking frame of mind. The search giant introduced Veo 3, the latest version of its generative video model, loading it with cinematic capabilities including a new AI storytelling tool called Flow. At the Google I/O conference the company also debuted an upgraded image generator, Imagen 4, and announced expanded access to the AI music tool Lyria 2. Veo 3 can generate videos with audio — a Google first, adding things like background traffic noises, birds singing, “even dialogue between characters.” It offers improved consistency of characters, scenes and objects, while gaining camera controls, outpainting and object add/remove. Continue reading Google Upgrades GenAI Models, Debuts AI Storyteller ‘Flow’

CNN announced the planned fall launch of a new streaming direct-to-consumer service. Pricing and start date details have yet to be revealed, but network CEO Mark Thompson announced the new product Wednesday at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in New York City. Thompson said the streaming service will be tied to a CNN.com subscription product. As with recent streaming launches from FOX and ESPN, CNN is taking care not to compete with its most lucrative customers, traditional cable providers, who will be able to pass through the new offering at no additional charge. Continue reading CNN Shares Plan to Introduce New Streaming Product in 2025

TikTok AI Alive is a new image-to-video feature that can add sequential expression to selfies and add progressive hues to sunsets. Accessible through the platform’s Story Camera, AI Alive uses intelligent editing tools that give anyone, regardless of experience, “the ability to transform static images into captivating, short-form videos enhanced with movement, atmospheric and creative effects.” TikTok says it is prioritizing safety and transparency by adding a label to AI Alive stories, which will also have C2PA metadata embedded, traveling with the content even when it’s downloaded and shared elsewhere. Continue reading TikTok Offering ‘AI Alive’ Image-to-Video Generator in Stories

Amazon’s second Upfront presentation featured a lineup of Hollywood celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Momoa and Jamie Lee Curtis joined by sports stars such as Travis Kelce and John Cena. The streamer announced that “Spider-Noir,” the Marvel series starring Nicolas Cage, debuts on Prime Video next year, while the post-apocalyptic drama “Fallout” returns for a third season. The Academy of Country Music Awards will call Prime Video home for the next three years. The ad-supported version of the streaming service has added 15 million monthly customers since January 2024 and now reaches about 130 million U.S. households monthly. Continue reading Amazon Touts Prime Video Subs, Series and Sports at Upfront

The new smartphone lineup from Chinese manufacturer Honor will include AI image-to-video capabilities developed in partnership with Google Cloud. The Honor 400 series will let users generate videos from static photos, according to the company. Google recently added support for Veo 2, which generates videos at up to 4K, for Gemini Advanced subscribers, and Honor says its new phones will have Veo 2 baked into the operating system, beating Google’s own Pixel phone to the punch. The Huawei spin-off is set to launch the 400 series May 22. Continue reading Google Veo 2 Video Generator Coming to New Honor Phones