Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, presents a new suite of artificial intelligence models called Movie Gen, which can create realistic videos based on text prompts. This innovation aims to compete with offerings from rivals like OpenAI and Runway, who are developing similar solutions for filmmakers and content creators.

Movie Gen enables the generation of videos up to 16 seconds in length, the editing of existing videos, the matching of soundtracks, and the personalization of videos with specific images. "Our models surpass the competition in terms of quality, motion, naturalness, and consistency," explains Connor Hayes, Vice President of Generative AI Products at Meta. This is based on blind human evaluations that aim to demonstrate the superior performance of Meta's AI.

The new tools are primarily intended to be offered to Hollywood filmmakers, artists, and influencers who are active on the Meta platforms.

Alongside technical advancements, Meta relies on ethical guidelines to prevent misuse.

The introduction of Movie Gen is part of a larger trend in the tech industry, where companies are attempting to broadly monetize their AI advancements in the entertainment sector. For example, Runway has recently partnered with film company Lionsgate to train a custom model on their film library.

Despite the advances, there are concerns about the impact on jobs in the film and production industry. Actors and production staff express worries that realistic AI-generated videos could threaten their professional future. Meta responds by clarifying that the technology is being developed as a supportive tool and not as a replacement for human creativity.