Latest news with #imageToVideo
WIRED
3 days ago
- Business
- WIRED
I Converted My Photos Into Short Videos With AI on Honor's Latest Phones. It's Weird
The photo gallery app in Honor's latest midrange phones has an image-to-video generative AI feature powered by Google. It'll probably come to your phone soon. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. As midrange phones designed to plug the gap between flagships, the Honor 400 and 400 Pro might not ordinarily attract much attention. But these devices—unavailable in the US—are among the first to feature Google's image-to-video AI generator, based on its Veo 2 model (now available to Gemini subscribers). Built into Honor's Gallery app, you can select a still photo from your camera roll to bring it to life as a five-second video. After much experimentation with different photos, from landscapes to family and pets, I'm impressed and weirded out. Like any AI tool, it has the potential to be good or bad, depending on how you wield it, and the results veer from flawless to freaky. It's a neat trick, and it's coming to the phone in your hand soon. Fake Photography Faking photography is nothing new—the medium is always evolving. Artificial intelligence has been smoothing wrinkles and enhancing skies for years. None of your photos are real, especially those you shot with your phone and edited to post on social media. But we're pushing beyond creating a fake bokeh background blur or dialing up colors of the sunset. Creating entirely fake videos from still images feels like a new high and a new low. The process is easy. Open the Gallery app on the Honor 400 or 400 Pro, choose the Create tab, tap Image to video, and select one of your photos. Choose a 9:16 or 16:9 aspect ratio for portrait or landscape, then hit start. You need to be connected to the internet. Each five-second video took around 30 seconds to create, but a pop-up message warns me they can take up to two minutes. There's no room to enter a prompt, so you are left at the mercy of whatever the AI decides to do. I began with photos of my wife and kids. The first few videos have a major uncanny valley feel. In one photo, my wife is covering her mouth, and the AI animates her moving her hand and talking, but the mouth it pastes in is entirely wrong. Much to her horror, it gives my daughter a series of facial tics. The video of my selfie comes out well and would surely fool anyone who doesn't know me, but my wife says she can tell it's not me because I never make facial expressions like that. We tried the cats next, and despite some odd expressions (my eldest cat, Bodhi, never looks as deferential as this), the results were pretty solid. Photos of landscapes, such as a boat on the waves or trees in a forest, are brought to life with believable rippling effects. Things got weirder with inanimate objects. With a pair of Star Wars Funko Pops, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber glowed to life, but Darth Maul on a speeder weirdly rotated on the spot. For a few photos of ornaments, it did a disappointing pan or zoom. As the debate about AI-generated art rages on, I can't help but wonder at the implications of uploading personal photos to be analyzed and animated by ever more powerful AI. Social media is already awash with carefully edited photos and videos, but AI processing is improving fast, generating more believable results with every passing day, and it's quickly becoming accessible to everyone. Camera Cold War Photography is the battleground for phone manufacturers trying to outdo one another. While most phone makers focused on hardware, Google dived deeper into computational photography, doing more with less. Google pioneered and popularized AI features in its Pixel phones. Options like AI Eraser to remove unwanted items or people from photos and AI-enhanced zoom to create more detailed zoomed shots from afar with underpowered hardware are fast becoming ubiquitous, and both work well on Honor's latest phones. Google has already moved on with Pixel 9 features like Best Take, enabling you to pick smiling faces where everyone has their eyes open from different shots, and Add Me, allowing you to take group photos and then add yourself to them. Securing buy-in for this brave new world of AI photography is clearly important, as Google aims to pull big Android phone manufacturers aboard, carefully balancing exclusive Pixel features with debuts for companies like Honor. Honor is creeping closer to marrying hardware and software in the 400 Pro. It has a triple-lens main camera comprising a 200-megapixel main shooter with a large 1/1.4-inch sensor, a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide, not to mention a 50-MP selfie camera. Honor has also bet big on AI in recent years, pushing more AI into its phones, working closely with Google, and showing off its own new AI features. The Chinese phone maker has come a long way from beauty filters that smooth out your wrinkles, though those are still available. The generate button has a label that says 'Limited-time free trial.' Honor 400 buyers get two free months and can generate up to 10 videos a day. Presumably, this will eventually be a paid feature of Google's Gemini Pro subscription and will roll out on many more phones (there's no firm timeline or pricing yet). It's a win-win for Google when it owns the underlying AI, enticing you to subscribe down the line. It's fun to play with—we exhausted our daily allowance fast—but seriously creepy.
GSM Arena
15-05-2025
- GSM Arena
Samsung is preparing a new Galaxy AI gallery feature
According to a tipster on X, Samsung is preparing to include an image-to-video generation feature in its Galaxy AI suite. Unfortunately, the tipster doesn't elaborate further and only mentions the image-to-video AI feature. This report comes shortly after Google announced the advanced video generation capabilities of Gemini. Given that the two companies work closely together and Gemini is already the default virtual assistant on Galaxy phones, Samsung may leverage Gemini's AI capabilities. Furthermore Honor is about to beat Samsung to it. The Honor 400 series will have the image-to-video feature powered by Google's AI. It's free for the first two months but will require a subscription from then on. Perhaps Samsung will introduce its new AI feature with One UI 8.0 and will eventually put it behind a paywall. But it's all speculation for now. Source
TechCrunch
13-05-2025
- TechCrunch
TikTok launches TikTok AI Alive, a new image-to-video tool
TikTok is launching its first image-to-video AI feature, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature is called 'TikTok AI Alive' and allows users to turn static photos into videos within TikTok Stories. The feature is only accessible via TikTok's Story Camera and uses AI to create short-form videos with 'movement, atmospheric and creative effects,' TikTok says. For instance, if your static photo features a sky, clouds, and the ocean, TikTok could turn the photo into a video where the sky gradually shifts hues, the clouds start to drift, and you hear the sound of waves crashing. Or, you could animate a group selfie that highlights gestures and expressions. The launch of the new image-to-video features comes a few years after TikTok introduced an in-app text-to-image AI generator. While both Instagram and Snapchat also offer text-to-image AI features for creators, TikTok is now taking a step further by offering its users the ability to create videos from images. It's worth noting that Snapchat has said it will soon allow creators to generate AI videos from images. Image Credits:TikTok AI Alive stories will have an AI-generated label to notify users that the content was created with AI. Plus, this content will have C2PA metadata embedded, which is a technical standard that helps others identify that the video is AI-generated, even if it's downloaded and shared beyond TikTok. 'We are always building with safety in mind, and the same goes for our AI innovations,' TikTok said in a blog post. 'As this technology enables new forms of creative expression, it undergoes multiple trust and safety checks to protect our community. To help prevent people from creating content that violates our policies, moderation technology reviews the uploaded photo and written AI generation prompt as well as the AI Alive video before it's shown to the creator.' TikTok notes that people can report videos that they think break the app's rules, and that the app conducts a final safety check once a creator shares an AI Alive story. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Creators can create an AI Alive video by opening the Story Camera and tapping the blue plus button on the top of the Inbox page or Profile page. From there, you can choose a photo from your Story Album. You will then see the AI Alive icon on the right side toolbar on the photo edit page.
Phone Arena
12-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
This new mid-range phone will debut with AI feature Google hasn't even given Pixel users
Honor is getting ready to unveil its new Honor 400 series on May 22 and it looks like the company has something pretty unexpected up its sleeve. While teasing what's coming, Honor just confirmed that its next phones will ship with an AI feature from Google that even Pixel phone owners haven't gotten their hands on yet. Thanks to a new partnership with Google Cloud, the Honor 400 series will include built-in image-to-video generation, powered by Google's Veo 2 tech. That means users will be able to turn still photos into 5-second videos, right from the phone. Veo 2 only just rolled out to Gemini Advanced users recently and now Honor's upcoming phones are among the first to actually bake this capability into their OS. The way it works is simple: upload any static image – real-life, AI-generated, a drawing, even an old memory – and the tool spits out a short video clip in portrait or landscape. It takes a minute or two per video, but the results could be fun, especially for anyone active on social media. Sure, it is not an essential feature, but if you are posting a lot or love creative tools, this might be your thing. And that is apparently just the start. Honor says more AI-powered tools are coming with the new phones and it is confident enough to call the Honor 400 series one of the top AI camera phones in its class. We are expecting two models: the Honor 400 and 400 Pro. The base model could land with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, a 6.55-inch AMOLED display at 120 Hz and a 200 MP rear Pro steps things up with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 6.7-inch screen (also 120 Hz) and the same 200 MP camera but with OIS. Both phones are rumored to include a 5,300 mAh battery with the Pro variant possibly supporting 100 W wired fast for pricing, it looks like the Honor 400 will start at €499 (around $560 when directly converted), with the Pro model going for €799 (around $900 when directly converted). The series is expected to launch in the UK and other regions, including Europe, China and possibly India. Still no word on a US launch, though. Considering the camera setup, the added AI tools and the rumored specs, the Honor 400 might end up being a strong mid-range option. It could be a solid rival to phones like the Galaxy S24 FE, Pixel 9a and OnePlus 13R – but for mobile photography fans, it might even be the better choice.
The Verge
12-05-2025
- The Verge
Google's AI image-to-video generator launches on Honor's new phones
Chinese phone manufacturer Honor has launched an image-to-video AI generator powered by Google, before it's available to Gemini users. It will be available first for anyone who buys the Honor 400 or 400 Pro phones, which launch next week on May 22nd. The new AI tool, powered by Google's Veo 2 model, creates five-second videos based on static images, in either portrait or landscape, and takes a minute or two to generate each time. The feature is built directly into the Gallery app on the new Honor phones, and is designed to be simple: there's no option to include a text prompt along with the image, so you're stuck hoping that the AI does something sensible with it. 1/2 Sometimes it works well. Give it a simple subject, like a clear photo of a person or pet, and it can generate quite realistic movement — albeit I'm pretty sure my cat Noodle's tongue isn't quite that big. Other subjects prove trickier: faced with a vintage car it made it rotate impossibly on the spot; fresh tomatoes were fondled by a ghostly hand; and it imagined a women's soccer game with at least 27 players across three teams, with two referees to keep control of the chaos. The first time I tried it, on a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, it decided that the most appropriate thing would be for a pigeon to fly out of his eye. Note: Honor's app outputs videos in MP4, which we've converted to GIFs, slightly reducing the image quality of the clips. The image-to-video feature will be available to Honor 400 owners for free for the first two months, but with a limit of ten video generations per day. Honor's UK marketing director Chris Langley told me that it 'will eventually require some subscription' from Google, but the details of that are unknown. Video generation using Veo 2 is already included in Google's paid Gemini Advanced subscription, but is currently limited to text input. Image-to-video generation is listed as one of Veo 2's features in Google Cloud, where Google charges customers 50 cents per second of output, but is available to 'approved users' only.
