The expansion comes at a time when Google is looking for a response to OpenAI’s Sora video creation platform and competition in the field is becoming increasingly fierce. Two weeks ago, one of the most powerful companies in the synthetic media space, Runway, released the fourth generation of its video generator and raised over $300 million in new capital.
Starting on Tuesday, Gemini Advanced subscribers will be able to select Veo 2 from a drop-down menu of models in Google’s Gemini apps. Users can create eight-second video clips in 720p resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio and upload them to TikTok, YouTube, and more using the Gemini Share button. Videos created with Veo 2 can also be downloaded in MP4 format with watermarks using Google’s SynthID technology.
There is a limit to the number of videos users can create each month, and Google Workspace business and education plans are not currently supported, according to the company.
Google is also integrating Veo 2 with Whisk, an experimental feature in Google Labs that lets you use images as prompts in Gemini to create new images. The new feature, Whisk Animate, allows users to take images they’ve created and turn them into eight-second videos created with Veo 2. (Google Labs is Google’s platform for early-stage AI product development, which is available with a $20/month Google One AI Premium subscription).
The application of Veo 2 at Google may seem quite simple at the moment. But Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently said that the company plans to eventually combine its Gemini artificial intelligence models with Veo to improve its understanding of the physical world.
In the meantime, many artists and creators are wary of video generators like Veo 2, which threaten to upend the entire creative industry. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animators Guild, the union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, shows that by 2026, more than 100,000 film, television, and animation jobs in the United States will be lost to artificial intelligence.
