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 single product image into a few-seconds-long video clip after a few minutes of processing.
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. Also in beta for select customers, it’s a part of Image generator, Amazon’s AI-powered image generation tool for ad customers.
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 take on generative video arrive as the race heats up. 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 them, though.
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 those models “regurgitate” copyrighted stills, users of the models could be exposed to IP lawsuits.
