Backed by Alibaba and Tencent, Chinese startup MiniMax has launched a new text-to-video model called Hailuo AI that is quickly gaining traction on social media based on its impressive capabilities, with comments ranging from “fantastical” to “hyper-realistic.” The free, web-based tool has already triggered videos that have gone viral, despite the current limitation of only 6-second clips. However, an image-to-video model is reportedly coming soon, in addition to a version 2 that promises longer video duration and improved motion. Unlike the Jimeng AI text-to-video model that was issued by ByteDance last month, the MiniMax technology is available outside of China.

Hailuo “creates 1280 x 720 resolution videos at 25 fps using text prompts, reportedly in about 2 minutes,” writes Digital Trends, which says output can take more like 5 minutes when site use is high. “People are making entire short films with this.”

Although it hasn’t been subject to independent testing, Hailuo — also known as Video-01 — shared an official 2-minute clip that “features special effects, a consistent character, and realism,” according to Tom’s Guide, which calls the technology “seriously impressive.”

However, after its own experiments with the platform, Tom’s says the results, while comparable to video generated by Runway’s Gen-2 and Kuaishou’s Kling, Hailuo’s output “isn’t as big of a leap” as the company’s own video suggests.

Creator Dave Clark shared his Hailuo-generated lightsaber duel between “Star Wars” characters Darth Vader and Darth Maul on X and concedes the result is unintentionally humorous, but claims the comedic appeal as an advantage, calling it “the first time I’ve seen the anti-AI crowd and AI crowd laughing together,” on LinkedIn.

The clip generated more than 5 million views in 48 hours.

Another Clark clip, “Black Ferrari,” makes a strong case for AI as an automotive marketing tool. Hailuo’s humans and environments are less consistent, but it impressed VentureBeat as offering “exceptional handling of human movements and gestures — a notorious challenge” for video generators.

MiniMax says it is working to improve Hailuo, aiming to increase the length of its clips while adding image-to-video generation. “As generative AI tools become more sophisticated, their potential applications in marketing, product design, and customer engagement grow exponentially,” VentureBeat points out.

MiniMax’s chatbot, Talkie, which lets users converse with AI-generated characters, “has been downloaded over 15 million times,” according to Tom’s.

Related:
Hailuo MiniMax AI Video Just Got a Major Upgrade — 7 Prompts to Try It Out, Tom’s Guide, 9/16/24