The dog that never was: Google responds to Sora with new AI video creation tools

The strategy is first of marketing: first the need is created and then the solution is sold. Google work tools, such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Meet or Docs, are used by 3 billion users, many of them for free with limitations. But 10 million of them (40% individuals and 60% companies) pay to organize with these applications. And now that they are part of the daily lives of millions of people and the need has been created, artificial intelligence emerges with the promise of improving this experience. But the solution will not be free, but rather each added advantage will cost 10 dollars more per month, about 9.2 euros. The company made this announcement this Tuesday in Las Vegas, where it held the company’s annual meeting to present digital innovations (Google Next). Among them, the multinational’s reaction to Sora, the Open AI tool capable of creating high-quality videos from simple text requests. The answer is an audiovisual editor, called Vids, and Image 2, similar to the competitor Sora, from Open AI.

Most users use, to a limited extent, but for free, some of the 11 applications included in the Google Workspace work platform (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Keep and Apps Script ). Others pay 5.75 euros per month (Business stater), 11.50 euros (standard) or 17.25 euros (Plus). Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, announced this Tuesday the renewal of this popular and massive tool set with Gemini for Workspace, Google’s artificial intelligence.

Kurian argues that innovation responds to user demand. According to him, “70% use the function Help me write and 75% create presentations in Slides.” The new “batch of innovations and improvements in Google Workspace with Gemini” includes a meeting and messaging add-on ($10 per month) that allows, as the paid version of ChatGPT already does, to take meeting notes, summarize them and the chats (associated chat apps) and simultaneous translation in 69 languages.

For another $10, another security plugin lets you automatically classify and protect sensitive files and data using AI. According to Aparna Pappu, CEO of Google Workspace, “using large language models, 20% more spam [correo basura o no deseado] In Gmail, 1,000 times more user complaints are reviewed daily and new hacking attacks are responded to 90% faster. phishing [estafa por suplantación]”.

videos

But one of Google’s big bets is aimed at creating videos. In this sense, the work platform will also include the Google Vids application, which allows you to develop scripts, produce and create audiovisuals compatible with the rest of the platform’s utilities. “Vids will be launching shortly in Workspace Labs and we hope to give access to all customers by the end of this year,” explains Kurian. “Probably in June,” says Aparna Pappu, CEO of Google Workspace.

“Vids is a video, writing, production and editing assistant all in one. It can generate an easily editable storyboard and, after choosing a style, creates a first draft from suggested scenes with stock videos, images and background music. It can also help complete your message with the appropriate narration voice, either by choosing our preset or using the user’s own,” explains Pappu.

“All you need is a browser, and that’s the key point,” the directive adds. “There is no need to email files back and forth; The team can continue in the story at the same time with the same access and security controls for the entire workspace,

The launch of Vids will be restricted to Google subscribers in its first steps. “We are doing a rollout to our paying customers to get feedback from them. This product is designed for a work environment, which is where our priority is. Once we roll out those features to our paying customers and get feedback from our users, we will consider expanding it,” says Pappu.

Image 2 in front of Sora

The closest development to Sora is also reserved for Gemini 1.5 Pro users, now available in preview through the Vertex AI platform for developers. This is Image 2, an AI model that, according to Amin Vahdat, director of Google Cloud, “provides the world’s largest contextual window to developers.” “Our family of imaging models can now be used to create four-second videos from text messages, including digital watermarking.”

“We are seeing organizations take advantage of Image 2 to generate high-quality, accurate videos at an enterprise scale. “The creative and marketing can generate animated images from a text message. Initially, the videos will be 24 frames per second (fps) with a resolution of 360×640 pixels and a duration of four seconds, with plans for continuous improvements,” explains Vahdat.

The program is prepared to offer a variety of angles and camera movements, maintaining coherence throughout the sequence and including security filters and digital watermarks using SynthID (Google DeepMind). The new European law on artificial intelligence requires us to unequivocally distinguish that a creation has been generated by artificial intelligence.

It will also make it easier in updated versions to remove unwanted aspects of an image, add new elements, and expand borders to create a wider field of view.

These developments respond to the Open AI movement with Sora, an artificial intelligence model that creates videos from text prompts up to one minute long. This audiovisual producer is undergoing tests, as the company explains, “to evaluate critical areas for damage or risks” and to obtain suggestions and proposals from visual artists, designers and filmmakers.

Open AI recognizes the need to review the development because, despite the spectacular realism it offers in its results, “the current model has weaknesses”, such as precision errors or hallucinations such as showing a scene that involves the alteration of an object that, without However, in the following frames it appears intact or mixes spaces or confuses trajectories.