Meta has previewed two new generative AI tools for video asset creation and picture editing.

The projects will eventually be rolled out to Facebook and Instagram, enabling content creators to generate videos and edit in-stream images within seconds using text prompts.

Why we care. Instantly generating various video assets and image edits reduces the back-and-forth time between creative and media teams, freeing up resources for strategic tasks like audience analysis. Quick access to diverse creatives can also serve as inspiration for marketers.

Emu Video. Meta’s latest generative AI tool for video creation, named Emu Video, is built upon the technology from the company’s “Emu” AI research project. This tool enables creators to generate short video clips using text prompts. Emu Video can produce high-quality video content from simple text or still image inputs. The same model can also animate user-provided images based on a text prompt, surpassing previous work by a significant margin and setting a new state-of-the-art standard.

Emu Edit. Meta’s new picture editing tool, Emu Edit, enables flexible editing through detailed instructions, handling tasks such as local and global edits, background removal and addition, color and geometry transformations, detection, segmentation, and more. Emu Edit accurately follows instructions, ensuring that pixels unrelated to the specified tasks in the input image remain unchanged.

What Meta is saying. A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement:

• “Although this work is purely fundamental research right now, the potential use cases are clearly evident. Imagine generating your own animated stickers or clever GIFs on the fly to send in the group chat rather than having to search for the perfect media for your reply.”
• “While certainly no replacement for professional artists and animators, Emu Video, Emu Edit, and new technologies like them could help people express themselves in new ways — from an art director ideating on a new concept or a creator livening up their latest reel to a best friend sharing a unique birthday greeting. And we think that’s something worth celebrating.”

Deep dive. Read Meta’s Emu Video and Emu Edit announcement in full for more information.