Ian Sansavera, a software architect
at a New York startup called Runway AI, typed a short description of what he
wanted to see in a video. “A tranquil river in the forest,” he wrote.
اضافة اعلان
Less than two minutes later, an
experimental internet service generated a short video of a tranquil river in a
forest. The river’s running water glistened in the sun as it cut between trees
and ferns, turned a corner, and splashed gently over rocks.
Runway, which plans to open its service to
a small group of testers this week, is one of several companies building
artificial intelligence technology that will soon let people generate videos
simply by typing several words into a box on a computer screen.
They represent the next stage in an
industry race — one that includes giants like Microsoft and Google as well as
much smaller startups — to create new kinds of artificial intelligence systems
that some believe could be the next big thing in technology, as important as
web browsers or the iPhone.
“This is one of the single most impressive technologies we have built in the last hundred years,” he said. “You need to have people actually using it.”
The new video-generation systems could
speed the work of moviemakers and other digital artists, while becoming a new
and quick way to create hard-to-detect online misinformation, making it even
harder to tell what is real on the internet.
Generative AIThe systems are examples of what is known
as generative AI, which can instantly create text, images, and sounds. Another
example is ChatGPT, the online chatbot made by a San Francisco startup, OpenAI,
that stunned the tech industry with its abilities late last year.
Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent company,
unveiled the first video-generation systems last year, but did not share them
with the public because they were worried that the systems could eventually be
used to spread disinformation with newfound speed and efficiency.
But Runway’s CEO, Cristóbal Valenzuela,
said he believed the technology was too important to keep in a research lab,
despite its risks. “This is one of the single most impressive technologies we
have built in the last hundred years,” he said. “You need to have people
actually using it.”
The technology can reproduce common images, like a cat sleeping on a rug. Or it can combine disparate concepts to generate videos that are strangely amusing, like a cow at a birthday party.
The ability to edit and manipulate film and
video is nothing new, of course. Filmmakers have been doing it for more than a
century. In recent years, researchers and digital artists have been using
various AI technologies and software programs to create and edit videos that
are often called deepfake videos.
Generating instant videosBut systems like the one Runway has created
could, in time, replace editing skills with the press of a button.
Runway’s technology generates videos from
any short description. To start, you simply type a description much as you
would type a quick note.
That works best if the scene has some
action — but not too much action — something like “a rainy day in the big city”
or “a dog with a cellphone in the park”. Hit enter, and the system generates a
video in a minute or two.
The technology can reproduce common images,
like a cat sleeping on a rug. Or it can combine disparate concepts to generate
videos that are strangely amusing, like a cow at a birthday party.
Where the tech is headedThe videos are only four seconds long, and
the video is choppy and blurry if you look closely. Sometimes, the images are
weird, distorted, and disturbing. The system has a way of merging animals like
dogs and cats with inanimate objects like balls and cellphones. But given the
right prompt, it produces videos that show where the technology is headed.
“At this point, if I see a high-resolution
video, I am probably going to trust it,” said Phillip Isola, a professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in AI. “But that will
change pretty quickly.”
“At this point, if I see a high-resolution video, I am probably going to trust it. But that will change pretty quickly.”
Like other generative AI technologies,
Runway’s system learns by analyzing digital data — in this case, photos,
videos, and captions describing what those images contain. By training this
kind of technology on increasingly large amounts of data, researchers are
confident they can rapidly improve and expand its skills. Soon, experts
believe, they will generate professional-looking mini-movies, complete with
music and dialogue.
“In the old days, to do anything remotely
like this, you had to have a camera. You had to have props. You had to have a
location. You had to have permission. You had to have money,” said Susan
Bonser, an author and publisher in Pennsylvania who has been experimenting with
early incarnations of generative video technology. “You don’t have to have any
of that now. You can just sit down and imagine it.”
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