Google Wants to Help You Make Videos With AI
AI video generators are nothing new in the age of AI: all one has to do is look at OpenAI’s Sora announcement to see how much of a problem these hyper-realistic but completely false videos will be.
However, Google is trying something new with its new Vids service. Vids is a new Workspace app announced at Google Cloud Next 2024 , which Google markets as an “AI-powered video creator” rather than an AI video generator. Video won’t necessarily create a video out of nothing, but it will help you realize the project you want to create for work. While Vids may be manual from start to finish, its AI-powered features are what’s new here.
Here’s how Google sees integrating video into your workflow: You open the app in Workspace, then describe the concept of your video in a text field. For reference, you can even link to work in another Workspace app, such as Docs.
Vids then creates a storyboard of sorts for your project, from the intro to each stage of the video timeline. You can rearrange, edit, and delete any entry in this plan to create a project you’re happy with. You then choose a “style” for your video, which reminds me of choosing a website design in something like Squarespace if you’ve ever done that.
Gemini will process your selection and create a draft video with standard images, video, music and sound effects. All these elements are presented in the video editor, which you can control by customizing, editing, deleting or replacing any element as you wish. You can even record voiceovers for your videos using Recording Studio. You can use your voice or choose one of Google’s options.
You can export and share static videos created with Vids just like any other video editing software, but Google also allows you to use these products for collaboration . You can create a “Video” and share it with others, who can then edit and refine the project themselves – similar to how Google’s other team-oriented products work.
As with other Google Cloud Next 2024 announcements , such as tabs in Google Docs and AI-powered Gmail draft editing, Vids will be a Workspace exclusive app when it launches in June. This means you or your company will need to pay for a Workspace plan before you can try out Vids, which likely means that only enterprise users will be able to use its video creation features for now. However, Google is open to posting videos on shared Google accounts, so keep an eye on that.