Google is bringing its Veo 2 video-generating AI model to users who pay for Gemini Advanced, the company’s premium AI plan.
The expansion comes as Google looks to deliver an answer to OpenAI’s Sora video generation platform, and as competition in the space grows fiercer. Two weeks ago, one of the more formidable synthetic media companies, Runway, released the fourth generation of its video generator and raised more than $300 million in new capital.
Starting Tuesday, Gemini Advanced subscribers will be able to select Veo 2 from the model drop-down menu in Google’s Gemini apps. Users can create eight-second video clips at 720p resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and upload these clips to TikTok, YouTube, and more via Gemini’s “share” button. Veo 2-generated videos can also be downloaded as MP4 files, watermarked with Google’s SynthID tech.
There’s a limit to how many videos users can create each month, and the Google Workspace business and education plans aren’t supported at the moment, the company says.
Google is also integrating Veo 2 with Whisk, an experimental feature in Google Labs that lets you use images as prompts with Gemini to create new images. A new feature, Whisk Animate, lets users take images they’ve generated and turn them into eight-second, Veo 2-generated videos. (Google Labs is Google’s platform for early-stage AI products, gated behind the company’s $20-per-month Google One AI Premium subscription.)
Google’s applications of Veo 2 may seem fairly basic at the moment. But the CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, recently said that the company plans to eventually combine its Gemini AI models with Veo to improve the former’s understanding of the physical world.
In the meantime, many artists and creators are wary of video generators like Veo 2, which threaten to upend entire creative industries. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimates that more than 100,000 U.S.-based film, television, and animation jobs will be disrupted by AI by 2026.
