Meta introduces generative AI video model “Movie Gen” for photorealistic films
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has introduced a multimodal AI video tool to the general public. “Movie Gen” is said to be able to create high-quality films of up to 45 seconds – including sound effects and background music. However, the application is unlikely to be suitable for the European market even after its launch.
Meta: “The most advanced video generation system”
Meta’s video tool is not yet publicly available for testing. However, it should be able to create video and audio data from simple text instructions. It should also be possible to change existing images or videos by replacing or editing objects and backgrounds. According to Meta, “Movie Gen” can also synchronize the sound with the movement in the videos created.
The research team behind “Movie Gen” claims to have outperformed the competition’s video models in tests carried out. “This is the most advanced video generation system we know of,” says Ahmad Al-Dahle, Vice President of Generative AI at Meta. Thanks to its particularly precise processing, Movie Gen is said to be better than the tools of leading startups such as OpenAI and ElevenLabs.
Movie Gen wants to convince through quality
A blog post by Meta announces that Movie Gen is already capable of outputting films up to 16 seconds long at a frame rate of 16 frames per second (FPS). Although this value does not come close to the graphic quality of video games, 16 FPS can still be described as professional film images.
Market entry unclear
Meta says that the developments surrounding Movie Gen are not yet fully developed. A launch is not expected until 2025 at the earliest – although Meta has not commented on the product’s market launch. “Further security tests” must be carried out beforehand.
A 92-page research paper from Meta’s AI team states: “As we deploy these models, we will build in security models that can reject prompts or generations that violate our policies to prevent abuse.”
Launch in Europe is probably not possible
What the research paper does not address is the question of availability in different countries. The broad release of video tools such as Meta’s also raises security concerns – in relation to several regulations. In Europe, copyright and the General Data Protection Regulation will probably be the biggest (insurmountable) hurdles. The AI Act also stipulates that AI applications that violate data protection laws may not be used in Europe.
Similar to Apple’s new iPhone series or the Google Pixels with their comprehensive AI capabilities, Movie Gen is expected to only enter the US market. For smartphones that have integrated Apple Intelligence or Google’s Gemini AI, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in Europe represents a hurdle, as it sees risks to users’ privacy and data security.
It was not specifically disclosed which data Meta uses to train Movie Gen. It is said to be a mixture of licensed and “publicly available” content.