Remembering the Leap in AI Video Generation

Do you remember when we got that huge leap in AI arc from mid Journey version 3 to Mid Journey version 4 where all of a sudden all of the images looked realistic and just insane? Well, today is the day that AI video generation just made that same leap. This is mind-blowing. This is AI.

Generated video right here today February 15, 2024, Open AI announced Sora, an AI model for creating video from text. This is the best AI text video generation tool we’ve ever seen. Here’s the official announcement from Open AI on their Twitter:

Introducing Sora, our text to video model. Sora can create videos up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions.

Up until now, we’ve only been able to create 3 or 4 seconds at a time, and then if we wanted longer, we can extend it and extend it up to about 16 seconds. But this is a single prompt 60-second video. Super realistic. Just check out this video that they shared as the example video when they made their announcement on Twitter. It looks super realistic. I mean, it’s a little pixelly, but I think that’s more due to Twitter’s compression than the actual video itself. This is just absolutely phenomenal, and there are tons of examples already of what this is capable of.

Announcements and Examples

Greg Brockman also took to Twitter to announce Sora: “Announcing Sora, our model which creates minute-long videos from a text prompt.” You can see his AI-generated video of a woman walking down the streets of what looks like maybe Tokyo at night after a rainy day or something. But the realism on this thing is just amazing. We haven’t seen anything like this with AI video generation yet.

Now, if you head on over to Open.com Sora, you can find out all about it and see a whole bunch of examples of the types of videos it can create. Now, unfortunately, we don’t have access to this model ourselves yet. You can see here in Sam Altman’s tweet about it: “Today we are starting red teaming and offering access to a limited number of creators.” I don’t know how they’re choosing those creators and who gets access, but as far as I know right now, not many people, if anyone, has access outside of the Open AI team.

Let’s just take a moment to look at some of the examples that they shared on their website of the videos that this can generate. Like these woolly mammoths walking towards us in a 10-second video here, or this movie trailer featuring The Adventures of a 30-year-old Spaceman wearing a red wool-knitted motorcycle helmet. I mean, the realism on this is just insane, and you can see what I mean by the quality from Twitter, where it looked a little more compressed. These videos that we’re seeing on the demo site are just mind-blowing. I mean, these are absolutely insane how well this is working.

Mind-Blowing Examples

Here’s another one with an animated scene featuring a close-up of a short fluffy monster kneeling beside a melted red candle. The art style is 3D and realistic with a focus on lighting and texture, a gorgeously rendered papercraft world of a coral reef rife with colorful fish and sea creatures. Look at that, that is so good. It looks like origami almost. And this video is 20 seconds long. Here we got a vertical video, this close-up shot of a Victoria crowned pigeon showcases its striking blue plumage and red chest, etc. That’s a long prompt but this is a 40-second video. Look how realistic that is. If you saw this video online, you would probably assume it’s a real video. It doesn’t look like AI art at all.

It’s just full of examples, and Sam Altman went to X to say, “Hey, what do you want to see me prompt?” and he’s actually taking requests and generating videos from requests. Here’s one of a wizard wearing a pointed hat and a blue robe with white stars casting a spell that shoots lightning from his hand and holding an old wand in his other hand. That pretty much nailed it. A half-duck half-dragon flies through a beautiful sunset with a hamster dressed in Adventure Gear on its back. That one’s looking a little AI to me; the dragon sort of going backward instead of forwards. The little hamster dude on his back is kind of sitting on him funky, but I got the half-dragon half-duck. I mean, that’s crazy that it managed to make that sort of morph.

Conclusion

I know there’s a lot of people that are watching this video; they’re on every single one of my videos in the comments saying, “That’s not that good. I’m not that impressed. Movie creators have nothing to worry about. I’m not saying that you can use this right now to make a full-length video. What I am saying is if you look at where we were a year ago, remember, a Will Smith eating spaghetti here, to where we are today, one year later, 4-second video that’s grainy and really unrealistic, up to 60-second videos that look really realistic. Where are we going to be a year from now? Maybe got nothing to worry about today, but these videos are getting so much better. I also still believe that there’s a role for people creating videos. I think people are still going to want to see human-made videos. I think AI is going to give them superpowers, make it even easier for them to make videos, make it even easier for them to get the shots that they couldn’t otherwise get. I don’t buy into a lot of the narratives of “game over” for movie directors, if you’re a videographer, you’re in trouble. I don’t buy into any of those narratives. If you’re a film director, if you’re a videographer, you’re about to get superpowers, not you’re about to get eliminated. That’s my thoughts on it anyway.

Sora from Open AI, super excited about it, had to make this quick video to tell you about it just in case you hadn’t seen it yet. This is mind-blowing. It’s the biggest leap we’ve seen in AI video generation hands down ever. Mind-blowing. I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I bet you’re the same way. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you want to see more videos like this and really cool AI advancements, news, tutorials as they happen like this video, subscribe to this channel, and I’ll make sure more pop up in your YouTube feed. If you’re not familiar, I also run the site Future Tools, lots and lots of cool AI tools to be discovered on this site. The AI news is updated constantly, and there’s a free newsletter that you can join. I’ll also share really cool ways to make money with AI if you join that free newsletter. You can find it all over at futuretools. Thank you so much for tuning in, nerding out with me. What an exciting day. I am jacked up over this. I am so pumped to see where we’ve come. I want to get my hands on it. I’m sure you do too, and I will keep us all in the loop, let you know as soon as it becomes available for commoners like us to be able to play with this. So make sure you’re locked in on this channel, and I will let you know when it’s ready. Thanks again for tuning in. Really appreciate you. See you in the next one. Bye-bye.