Meta introduced Emu Video, an advanced version of their image generation tool Emu. This technology generates four-second animated clips from captions, images, or photos with descriptions.
Emu Video also comes with Emu Edit, another AI tool allowing users to modify clips in natural language, like adding slow motion.
Video generation isn’t new; Meta and Google have experimented with it, and companies like Runway are building businesses around it. Emu Video stands out with its high-quality 512×512 resolution, 16-frames-per-second clips that are impressively realistic.
However, Emu Video excels in animating simple scenes with artistic styles like cubism or anime, rather than photorealism. For example, a clip showing the Eiffel Tower at dawn in a painting style is remarkably similar to an e-card.
Despite the high quality, AI-generated quirks remain, such as odd physics and unusual visual elements. Objects may appear and disappear illogically, as seen in a clip of the Eiffel Tower with birds flying overhead.
Meta recently announced plans with Amazon to integrate shopping experiences in its social media apps, Facebook and Instagram.
This partnership will allow users to link their Facebook and Instagram accounts with their Amazon accounts, enabling them to shop directly from these social platforms.
The convenience of using saved Amazon payment details and shipping addresses is a key feature of this new setup.
Amazon spokesperson Callie Jernigan confirmed that users will have access to real-time pricing, Prime benefits, delivery estimates, and detailed product information for selected Amazon products advertised on Facebook and Instagram.
This initiative was first revealed by Maurice Rahmey, co-CEO of Disruptive Digital, through a LinkedIn post.
Rahmey highlighted the advantages of this collaboration, such as improved ad targeting and optimization, better conversion rates due to quicker checkout processes, and customized ad messaging and product pages based on the user’s Prime membership status.
