It’s not difficult to understand why Google has been investing so much time, money, and effort into its AI tools. Since the popularization of AI by ChatGPT, the field has experienced significant growth over the past couple of years, with major brands like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others vying for a leading position.
Naturally, Google is also taking part in this race, and as such, we’ve seen an explosion of AI tools and features within the brand’s ecosystem. But if there’s one thing that we’ve learned throughout all of this, it’s that there’s always room for more. Today, Google is bringing one of its more popular AI tools to YouTube, allowing users to create small clips using a photo while utilizing a variety of effects.
This is going to be a big one
If you’re someone that’s currently paying to access Google’s AI Pro or AI Ultra plan, or you have access to one of those plans because you purchased a Pixel phone, then this new feature coming to YouTube should sound familiar. Google recently announced its image to video tool for subscribers to its AI plans, offering a fun and creative way to showcase how powerful AI can be.
Essentially, this tool can bring your photos to life, and add a small twist with some effects. YouTube users will now be able to select a photo and bring it to life with motion using some creative suggestions from Google. When it comes to some examples, Google will let you add subtle movements to landscape videos, create realistic-looking backgrounds, or draw a subject and see it come to life.
It really is quite something once you get to see it in action. Most importantly, this feature will be free to users through YouTube, which is a huge way to get people to start experimenting and using it. This feature will be powered by Google’s Veo 2 for now, and will get a Veo 3 upgrade sometime later in the year.
For its initial roll-out, the feature will be available for free to those in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. While this will no doubt cause an explosion of new AI videos to hit the web, Google does have some protections set in place, like SynthID watermarks and visual markers to help those watching to be able to distinguish videos that are AI-generated.
If you’re interested in creating your own videos with AI effects, you can head to the YouTube mobile app, and hit the + sign to begin creating. Once you select an image from your gallery, you’ll have the option to create a video. There will also be an effects tab where you can add some AI-generated flair to photos as well.
