Among the many AI treats that Google tossed into the crowd during its Google I/O 2024 keynote was a new video tool called Veo – and the waiting list for the OpenAI Sora rival is now open for those who want early access.
From Google's early Veo demos, the generative video tool certainly looks a lot like Sora, which is expected to be released "later this year." It promises to whip up 1080p resolution videos that "can [be] beyond a minute" and in different cinematic styles, from time-lapses to aerial drone shots. You can see an example further down this page.
Veo, which is the engine behind a broader tool from Google's AI Test Kitchen called VideoFX, can also help you edit existing video clips. For example, you can give it an input video alongside a command, and it'll be able to generate extra scenery – Google's example being the addition of kayaks to an aerial coastal scene.
But like Sora, Veo is also only going to be open to a select few early testers. You can apply to be one of those 'Trusted Testers' now using the Google Labs form. Google says it will "review all submissions on a rolling basis" and some of the questions –including one that asks you to link to relevant work – suggest it could initially only be available to digital artists or filmmakers.
Still, we don't know the exact criteria to be an early Veo tester, so it's well worth applying if you're keen to take it for a spin.
The AI video tipping point
Veo certainly isn't the first generative video tool we've seen. As we noted when the Veo launch first broke, the likes of Synthesia, Colossyan, and Lumiere have been around for a while now. OpenAI's Sora has also hit the mainstream with its early music videos and strange TED Talk promos.
These tools are clearly hitting a tipping point because even the relatively conservative Adobe has shown how it plans to plug generative AI video tools into its industry-standard editor Premiere Pro, again "later this year."
But the considerable computing power needed to run the likes of Veo's diffusion transformer models, and maintain visual consistency across multiple frames, is also a major bottleneck on a wider rollout, which explains why many are still in demo form.
Still, we're now reaching a point where these tools are ready to partially leap into the wild, and being an early beta tester is a good way to get a feel for them before the inevitable monthly subscriptions are defined and rolled out.
