AI Video Booming as TikTok Owner ByteDance Enters the Space
ByteDance HQ in Beijing. Photo by Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images.
Key Takeaways
- ByteDance has debuted its latest text-to-video solution MagicVideo V2.
- The new platform is being positioned as a rival to Pika and Stability AI’s SVD-XT.
- Amid a proliferation of AI-powered video generators, the field has advanced significantly in a short space of time.
Since the first text-to-video AI platforms emerged in 2022, there has been a proliferation of tools that generating and edit video with AI. Platforms like Pika, W.A.L.T, and Vatic are able to create short, high-quality animations from text prompts.
Amid fierce competition between AI developers, TikTok parent company ByteDance recently unveiled MagicVideo V2. According to its creators, the new video generation platform outperforms rivals in the quality and resolution of its output.
MagicVideo Benchmarked Against Leading Alternatives
To evaluate MagicVideo’s performance, users were asked to rate its output compared to other text-to-video platforms using the same prompt. On average, users rated the quality of MagicVideo’s outputs higher than those created by Runway, Gen-2, Pika 1.0, Morph, Moon Valley and SVD-XT.
Using prompts like “traveler walking alone in the misty forest at sunset,” ByteDance showcased video clips generated by MagicVideo alongside equivalent outputs from Stability AI’s SVD-XT, Gen-2 by Runway and Pika 1.0. The results are impressive, demonstrating just how far the technology has come in a short space of time. But it isn’t yet clear how the company intends to use the new product.
With so many other options out there, many of them available for free, it would be difficult for ByteDance to generate revenue by launching MagicVideo as a standalone service. However, the firm could also integrate AI video generation into its existing products, which include video-sharing platforms like TikTok, Toutiao and Xigua Video.
AI Video Generation Use Cases
AI can’t animate complex movements or extended scenes. That means text-to-video platforms can only generate short video clips containing basic motion.
In the short time it has been available, designers, marketers, YouTubers and media professionals have adopted the technology. Creators often use AI-generated videos as an alternative to static images. Platforms like MagicVideo can empower creators with new capabilities they wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. However, they still can’t replace professional animators.
Alongside dedicated text-to-video systems, at least 8 ChatGPT plugins integrate OpenAI’s chatbot with video generation capabilities, bringing the technology to an even wider audience.
Meanwhile, generative AI is transforming the way film and animation professionals work, thanks to new tools developed by the likes of Pika Labs and the incorporation of AI-powered features into popular video editing software.
