Google Vids now lets you star in your own AI videos
Quick Answer
Google has updated Google Vids to allow users to create custom AI avatars using selfies and voice recordings.
Quick Take
Google has updated Google Vids to allow users to create custom AI avatars using selfies and voice recordings. The new Gemini Omni model enables video creation from written prompts and images, enhancing its capabilities for personalized content and business applications.
Key Points
- Users can create digital avatars resembling themselves with selfies and voice uploads.
- Gemini Omni model allows video creation from text prompts and reference images.
- Omni supports background changes and lighting fixes in recorded videos.
- Step-by-step editing enables users to modify videos without starting over.
- Access to personal avatars is limited to users aged 18 and older in specific regions.
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OpenAI’s Sora may have shut down, but Google apparently thinks there’s still interest in a tool that lets you star in your own AI videos. On Thursday, the tech giant announced an update to Google Vids that will allow you to create a custom digital avatar that looks and sounds like you based on a selfie and a voice recording you upload.
In addition, Google said it’s bringing its multi-modal AI model Gemini Omni to Vids, letting you create videos using a combination of a written prompt and reference images you upload. Omni then mixes those inputs together to create the AI video you want. It can also be used to do things like swap out 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 as you go instead of starting over from scratch.
The updates push Google Vids beyond its original role as an AI-assisted workplace presentation tool to become more of an all-in-one video creation platform. By making Vids a part of Google Workspace, the company is telegraphing its use as a business tool for things like company updates or training videos, but personalized avatars and conversational edits could put it in closer competition with other AI video startups and tools like HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, D-ID, and others.
Google notes that the new AI avatars will be tied to the account holder’s likeness, tied to their Google account, and watermarked invisibly with SynthID. (I suppose that means no one will be using the tool to make bizarre AI videos of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the way that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had let users do with Sora when it was available!)
The company also says that access to personal avatars is limited to users in certain regions who are aged 18 or older.
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Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.
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