OpenAI sora can they have closedbut apparently Google thinks there’s still interest in a tool that lets you star in your own AI videos. On Thursday, the technology giant announced an update to Google Vids that will let you create a custom digital avatar that looks and sounds like you based on a selfie and voice recording you upload.
Additionally, Google said it will bring its multimodal AI model Gemini Omni to Vids, which allows you to create videos using a combination of a written message and reference images that you upload. Omni then mixes those inputs to create the AI video you want. It can also be used to do things like change the background or fix the lighting in a video recorded on your phone, or add effects.
Plus, Omni now supports step-by-step edits, meaning you can make changes to your video on the fly instead of starting from scratch.
The updates take Google Vids beyond its original role as an AI-assisted workplace presentation tool to become an all-in-one video creation platform. By making Vids part of Google Workspace, the company is telegraphing its use as a business tool for things like company updates or training videos, but custom avatars and conversational edits could put it in closer competition with other startups and AI video tools like HelloGen, synthesis, Covertions, DIDand others.
Google notes that the new AI avatars will be linked to the account holder’s image, their Google account, and will have an invisible watermark with SynthID. (I guess that means no one will use the tool to make Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s weird AI videos, the same way OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had let users do with Sora when it became available!)
The company also says that access to personal avatars is limited to users in certain regions who are 18 years old or older.
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