{insert catchy blog title:am sure there's an AI for that}

Playing with Pika Video Generation AI

Video generation AIs are improving rapidly. On December 22, 2023, I received an email granting me access to Pika. Since it's the holiday season and I had some free time, I decided to give it a try.

It's worth noting that video generation AIs have only been around for a year, so there's still much room for growth and improvement.

Currently, the generated videos are only three seconds long, but that limitation can be overcome with more resources, such as additional servers, increased processing power, and more data. The ability to create longer videos may come with an associated cost, as extended videos could be charged at a higher rate. However, this is a reasonable approach to manage resources effectively.

Now, let's get to the exciting part.

That video was generated using the prompt: "A muscular raccoon bodybuilder in the gym, Unreal Engine, low-angle dolly shot." And voila! It's fascinating to think that this visual creation was brought to life through the power of words.

Words have tremendous creative potential. When we consider the concept of creation itself, we realize that gods are revered, and people believe in something greater than themselves because, in our history and mythology, gods used words to bring the world into existence. Let there be light, let there be man, do not eat of the fruits—everything originated from words.

Similarly, with AI-powered video generation, we can create and bring things into existence through spoken words.

What is creation? Why do we revere gods? Why does every person here believe in something bigger than themselves?

God created this entire thing we call existence using nothing but words. Let there be light. Let there be man. Do not eat of the fruits.

All words. That’s the power of words.

So, if I can create something like that—using nothing but the power of words—imagine the possibilities.

Add voice prompting to do the "typing bit" for you, and voilà! You spoke something into existence. Something like this.

The prompts have to be particular. There’s some knowledge of the field required—well, not too much.

My first prompts were “A boy doing 10 pushups a day becomes the hero”—and I got this. My second was “A rapper in the studio, blue lights, facing away from the mic, and getting super excited and dancing to his song.” I got something similar to the first.

Then I tried a different approach: I picked a prompt that was already working, edited it slightly, and ended up generating this 

That’s when I noticed how precise their prompts were. You had to specify details like resolution, cinematic medium, and depth of field to get something truly remarkable. Take the first one of the Greek gods, for example. This was the prompt:

Cinematic medium shot of the wise goddess Athena, dressed in flowing white robes, standing beside the male Greek god. They exchange a knowing glance, hinting at their shared wisdom. Mythological drama, soft lighting, 4K, sharp, Arri Alexa, depth of field, highly detailed.

My advice? Always find a prompt that has already worked and edit it. Otherwise, you might end up paying people like me to AI (prompt) "engineer" for you, haha.

The Future

I know some of you will look at this and think, Oh, this? Sigh. Not impressed. But let me remind you—it’s only been a year! Do you know what the PC was like in its first year? Or the internet? Or social media? (Do you even remember MySpace in its first year?) Exactly! Hehe,

Imagine what we’ll be able to create in just five years of this technology. I truly hope the world doesn’t let this die—that we continue funding generative AI so these firms can push the limits.

Work is definitely going to change. Again, this might not impress you, but show it to your friend who works in video creation, animation, or editing. Yeah, that friend. Show them this and see what they think.

Their work is probably about to become a whole lot easier thanks to this.

These are just tools.

Just like the computer made everyone’s work easier, so will these. Work will evolve, we’ll shift our focus to developing more things, and we’ll be fine.{https://artificialintellitools.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-ais-wont-take-your-jobs-other.html}.

Try Pika for yourself https://pika.art/ 

Thank You