Google's new AI video creator looks so good you won't tell it apart from the real thing

You've been meaning to write that screenplay for a while now, haven't you? You've got the idea all mapped out, but there's just one stumbling block – you don't have the budget for those cinematic shots you storyboarded.

Well, fear not young Spielberg-in-the-making – at Google IO 2024, the brand just announced a new piece of AI-powered tech, which could make your dreams come true.

The Veo video creation software is capable of generating 1080p video which can last longer than one minute. That's not all, though, as the model has been trained to respond to filmmaking prompts.

That means users could ask certain cinematic styles, or shooting techniques and Veo will utilise those when it creates the video. That gives users an unprecedented level of control over the results on offer.

The results look simply fantastic, too. The speech at the live event showed off work with filmmaker, Donald Glover. Prompts were accurately depicted, and had a distinctly lifelike quality.

Okay, so my introduction may have been a little tongue in cheek, but there certainly are some real world use cases for this kind of technology. 

Say, for example, you're a content creator. You've built up a nice rig to make the best video you can, but need to get some cool b-roll to complement your main shots. It's unlikely that you'll have the budget to take a vintage car to Mexico for ten seconds of footage, but Veo could make something unique for you, to complement your work.

It's not going to please everyone, of course. There are many vocal adversaries to AI-powered media, especially in the creative industries. Still, when used in a responsible way, it might have the potential to aid creators, without replacing entirely.

For me, this is one of the most interesting AI-powered devices to hit the market. It's not the first time we've seen AI-generated video, sure, but it is the most photorealistic version yet. That has the potential to be a turning point.