Video Generation

Video generation AI company Runway announced on its official X account on Nov. 9 (Nov. 10 Japan time) a new feature, "Sightline," that creates a 360-degree panorama of any location and lets users frame shots from any angle within it. The surrounding environment stays the same at whatever angle a shot is taken, and the panorama can be exported for 3D to use as a scene's environment. The company said users can get started from "App Studio," its system for building production apps released in October. It did not give pricing or eligible plans.

Google on Nov. 5 announced "Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash," a new version of its video generation AI, and made it generally available in the Gemini API and Google Cloud. It extends the video that can be created in a single generation from 10 seconds to 15 seconds and cuts the price for 720p from about $0.10 to $0.07 per second. On the same day, a detection bot posted that the model had appeared in AI Studio, but the bot's figures of a 131,072-token context and a 65,536-token maximum output could not be confirmed in official materials and remain unverified. On Dec. 3, API requests to the previous 1.1 will be switched to 1.2.

Video generation AI company Runway announced on its official X account on Nov. 4 (Nov. 5 Japan time) that its developer API platform "Runway Dev" can now be used in Anthropic's Claude Code. With the plugin installed, Claude Code reads the models, pricing and remaining credits available on the user's account and builds Runway's video, image and audio generation into apps. The plugin is free, but generation is billed per use by model, with Gen-4.5 at 12 credits ($0.12) per second. The company also announced versions for OpenAI's Codex and Cursor on Nov. 2, turning AI coding tools into a new sales channel.

China's Kuaishou on Nov. 4 (Nov. 5 Japan time) opened "Kling 4.0 Flash," a lightweight version of its video generation AI "Kling 4.0," to all users. Since Sept. 28, it had been offered early only to annual subscribers of the top plan. Besides Kling's website and API, it can be used through mechanisms called by AI agents and through plugins for Photoshop, Premiere Pro and other software. However, videos are limited to 720p and a maximum of 20 seconds, with more restrictions than the higher-end version, and the company has not disclosed pricing or generation speed figures.

Runway, the U.S. maker of video generation AI, on Oct. 26 launched "App Studio," which builds dedicated apps that generate images, video and audio when users describe in text the tool they want. The apps can incorporate Runway's models and brand kits that bundle logos and colors, and can be shared with teams. It is available at no extra cost on paid plans, with building and use deducted from credits. On Oct. 29, the company also announced an update to "Character Swap," an app that replaces characters in videos.

CapCut, the video editing app owned by China's ByteDance, announced on Oct. 24 at its "CapCut World" event in Los Angeles that it will release a plugin within months for editing and generating videos inside OpenAI's ChatGPT. Users can develop an idea in ChatGPT, have CapCut produce a rough edit, and then refine it in conversation with requests such as making a scene longer or the captions easier to read. CapCut has more than 700 million users in more than 170 markets.

Germany's Black Forest Labs, a maker of image generation AI, on Oct. 22 overhauled "FLUX Video Upscale," an AI that increases video resolution. It can upscale to as high as 4K, and the company claims it is cheaper and about twice as fast as rival Topaz Labs' "Astra 2." Users can choose between two modes in a single API: "accurate," which preserves the original footage, and "creative," which adds detail. It can handle up to 20 seconds at a time, shorter than Astra 2's maximum of 5 minutes.

China's Kuaishou said on Oct. 21 that it would begin offering an API for its video generation AI "Kling 4.0," opening it to businesses and developers in stages. It can be built into companies' own products and workflows. It can create videos of up to 30 seconds per generation, with up to 15 reference images or videos. U.S.-based fal opened it to all users on Oct. 23, and more than 10 services integrated it at the same time. However, the API's pricing and details of available features have not been disclosed, and the model is still treated as a preview.

AI video generation company Runway announced on Oct. 20 that it has joined "Claude Marketplace," Anthropic's purchasing channel for businesses. Companies that have committed to an annual spend with Anthropic can apply part of it to buying "Runway Creative," Runway's workspace for creating video, images and audio. Runway also joined a similar OpenAI channel in September, making it available through the commitments of both of the two major AI companies.

Germany's Black Forest Labs, an image-generation AI company, announced "FLUX 3 Max," a video generation model improved jointly with U.S.-based fal, on Oct. 19. It produces a 10-second video in about 12 seconds, and the company claims it matches the quality of China's ByteDance's "Seedance 2.5" while being 22 times faster. In an image-to-video evaluation by third-party U.S. firm Artificial Analysis, it tied with Seedance 2.5, and its gap with the top-ranked model from China's MiniMax was within the margin of error. Pricing is $0.17 per second (720p), cut to a quarter until Nov. 7.

Google is developing "Gemini Omni 1.5," the next version of its video generation AI, which will extend the length of video that can be made in one go from the current 10 seconds to 15 seconds, an X account that reports rumors about new models posted on Oct. 18. Google has not announced it, and other specifications and the release timing are unknown. The current "Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash" was released on Aug. 27 and makes videos of up to 10 seconds each, which can be extended to a total of 40 seconds with the extension feature.

Runway said on its official X account on Oct. 30 (Oct. 31 Japan time) that "Runway Agent," its AI agent for creating video and images, can now open files and run program code. In a demonstration, it gathered colors and product images from a company's website and produced a batch of ad concepts with the logo placed in them and product photos with different backgrounds. The company did not say which plans offer the feature or how many credits it consumes. Runway also launched "Runway Ads" for ad generation and other tools in October, shifting its focus toward advertising production for businesses.