Pika Labs has updated its generative video model, Pika 2.0 adding more user control and customizability, the company says. Improvements include better “text alignment,” making it easier to have the AI follow through with intricate prompts. Enhanced motion rendering is said to deliver more “naturalistic movement” and better physics, including greater believability in transformations that tend toward the surreal, which has typically been a challenge for genAI tools. The biggest change may be “Scene Ingredients,” which lets users add their own images when building Pika-generated videos.

“The launch of Pika 2.0 underscores Pika’s commitment to making AI video creation accessible, affordable, and user-friendly,” VentureBeat writes, noting the release comes just weeks after the successful release of Pika 1.5, and “days” after OpenAI released Sora, “its own AI generator — originally shown off 10 months ago — to the masses.”

Emphasizing the Web-based browser interface that allows Pika Labs and its models to “focus on individuals and small creators rather than professional studios,” VentureBeat says the company has been able to distinguish itself from competitors.

Of the new features, VentureBeat singles out Scene Ingredients, “which allows users to upload and customize individual elements like characters, objects, and settings.” A Pika 2.0 demo on the Pika website shows how users can convincingly do things like “ride a neighbor’s cat” or “take a selfie with your dead grandma.”

The Decoder reports that Scene Ingredients “works by letting users build scenes from different visual pieces,” by prompting with “pictures of people, objects, clothing, or environments,” with the AI putting the pieces together, figuring out what each image is and how it’s meant to be used, then combining the elements into a scene.

“For example, if you upload a photo of someone and a picture of a cat, then type ‘a person petting a cat,’ the AI understands what you want and creates an animated video of that interaction,” The Decoder explains.

Pika’s approach has struck a chord with users, translating to what VentureBeat calls “impressive growth” with more than five million users joining “in a single month following the release of Pika 1.5, bringing its total user base to over 11 million.”

Driving the surge are features that include “Squish It,” “Melt It,” and “Explode It” — used to create videos that have amassed “more than two billion views” from laymen and brands alike, VentureBeat says, citing Balenciaga, Fenty and Vogue among those that have “tapped into Pika’s tools to create creative social advertisements, further boosting the platform’s visibility.