Facebook’s New Pivot to Video: An AI Mini-Movie Tool

The tech giant Meta is leaning further into video, announcing an artificial intelligence-powered video generation and editing tool, and a tweak to Facebook that will make its Reels video content more “prominent” for users of the social network.

The Facebook tweaks were announced at an event in Austin, Texas Friday, while details on the the AI-generated video tool were published on the Meta AI blog.

The AI tool, Meta Movie Gen, can create videos of up to 16 seconds based only on a text prompt. Perhaps even more significantly, it also allows for video editing and “personalized” video generation, where it can take a specific photo and integrate it into a video.

The personalized videos could see someone upload a photo of themselves, with the tool then able to insert the person into videos. The video editing tool, meanwhile, would allow a user to take a video they shot and add objects or tweaks to it. A demo showed a penguin walking on ice in Antarctica, with the AI dressing it in a victorian-era outfit after receiving a prompt.

The tool, which follows similar tools from OpenAI (Sora) and RunwayML, among others, is sure to catch the eye of Hollywood, as studios think of ways to cut costs, and some workers wonder if the tech will ultimately displace them.

In the blog post, Meta sought to dissuade those concerns, writing “while there are many exciting use cases for these foundation models, it’s important to note that generative AI isn’t a replacement for the work of artists and animators.

“We’re sharing this research because we believe in the power of this technology to help people express themselves in new ways and to provide opportunities to people who might not otherwise have them,” it continued. “Our hope is that perhaps one day in the future, everyone will have the opportunity to bring their artistic visions to life and create high-definition videos and audio using Movie Gen.”

Meanwhile, in Austin at a Facebook IRL event, the company announced a number of updated to Messenger, Marketplace, Groups, and other Facebook features. That includes AI-generated summaries of group comments, new local and explore tabs that pull together content from Reels, marketplace, groups and events, and other features.

Of most interest to Hollywood, however, will be the new full-screen video tab “that gives Reels a more prominent home on Facebook.”

The new tab is meant to make it easier for Facebook suers to find and watch videos via Reels (Facebook’s big TikTok competitor), including shortform, longform and live videos, all powered by what Facebook calls “our turbo-charged recommendations technology.”

“Young adults on Facebook spend almost 60% of their time on the app watching videos, and more than half of young adults watch Reels daily – so we want to make sure we’re creating a video experience that helps them get valuable tips, advice and recommendations,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the changes.