Attempting to stay ahead of OpenAI in the generative video race, Google announced Veo 2, which it says can output 4K clips of two-minutes-plus at 4096 x 2160 pixels. Competitor Sora can generate video of up to 20 seconds at 1080p. However, TechCrunch says Veo 2’s supremacy is “theoretical” since it is currently available only through Google Labs’ experimental VideoFX platform, which is limited to videos of up to 8-seconds at 720p. VideoFX is also waitlisted, but Google says it will expand access this week (with no comment on expanding the cap). Continue reading Veo 2 Is Unveiled Weeks After Google Debuted Veo in Preview

Meta has added new features to Ray-Ban Metas in time for the holidays via a firmware update that make the smart glasses “the gift that keeps on giving,” per Meta marketing.  “Live AI” adds computer vision, letting Meta AI see and record what you see “and converse with you more naturally than ever before.” Along with Live AI, Live Translation is available for Meta Early Access members. Translation of Spanish, French or Italian will pipe through as English (or vice versa) in real time as audio in the glasses’ open-ear speakers. In addition, Shazam support is added for users interested in easily identifying songs. Continue reading Ray-Ban Meta Gets Live AI, RT Language Translation, Shazam

Twelve Labs has raised $30 million in funding for its efforts to train video-analyzing models. The San Francisco-based company has received strategic investments from notable enterprise infrastructure providers Databricks and SK Telecom as well as Snowflake Ventures and HubSpot Ventures. Twelve Labs targets customers using video across a variety of fields including media and entertainment, professional sports leagues, content creators and business users. The funding coincides with the release of Twelve Labs’ new video foundation model, Marengo 2.7, which applies a multi-vector approach to video understanding. Continue reading Twelve Labs Creating AI That Can Search and Analyze Video

Google has introduced Gemini 2.0, the latest version of its multimodal AI model, signaling a shift toward what the company is calling “the agentic era.” The upgraded model promises not only to outperform previous iterations on standard benchmarks but also introduces more proactive, or agentic, functions. The company announced that “Project Astra,” its experimental assistant, would receive updates that allow it to use Google Search, Lens, and Maps, and that “Project Mariner,” a Chrome extension, would enable Gemini 2.0 to navigate a user’s web browser to complete tasks autonomously. Continue reading Google Releases Gemini 2.0 in Shift Toward Agentic Era of AI

Google has unveiled Android XR, an operating system for computers and smart glasses powered by Google’s Gemini AI large language model. Samsung confirmed that it will release an extended reality headset that runs on Android XR sometime in 2025. Samsung worked closely with Google and Gemini throughout 2023, leading up to the Galaxy S24 series of smartphones that debuted at CES 2024 last January. Google announced the release of the Android XR SDK Developer Preview kit so new apps can be built and existing ones ported over to the new platform to support Samsung’s new headset and other devices. Continue reading Android XR Powered by Gemini OS for Samsung’s 2025 Headset

With AI powering a range of new world-building apps, 2025 could be the year the metaverse finally makes an impact. Midjourney joins the world-building club with Patchwork, a collaborate canvas for creating “infinite” fictional worlds. Now in research preview, the tool is being developed as a standalone app, though preview access requires a Midjourney Discord account linked to a Google account. Users are able to connect characters and worlds, and “share” their developing world — evolving as a “board” — with up to 100 collaborative partners on Midjourney (though the company recommends fewer participants for a more focused experience). Continue reading Midjourney Touts Collaborative World-Building App Patchwork

YouTube’s Playables, a no-download app for light games, is testing a multiplayer feature for select titles. The Playables multiplayer lets users play games in real time with others on the platform. The test kicks off with two games available on both desktop and mobile, “Ludo Club” and “Magic Tiles 3.” YouTube launched Playables to all users in May with more than 75 titles and announced this week that it plans to introduce more features and content in the future. Gaming is a “sizable” viewing market for YouTube, according to Statista, which says its most-subscribed game channels each average about 47 million monthly subscribers. Continue reading YouTube Playables Experiments with Live Multiplayer Gaming

Hundreds of thousands more YouTube channels are gaining access to its AI-powered auto-dubbing feature, which generates audio translation tracks for YouTube videos, helping to make the platform’s content more accessible to viewers around the world. The expanded rollout targets informational channels in the Partner Program, such as tutorials on cooking, sewing, tourism and home improvement. Availability “will expand to other types of content soon,” according to video streamer, which began testing the feature with select creators last year. Based on technology developed by Aloud, YouTube’s auto-dubbing emerged from the Area 120 internal incubator program. Continue reading YouTube Expands Access to Improved AI-Powered Dubbing

Reddit has launched a new AI-powered search tool called Reddit Answers. Reddit is already appearing regularly in Google Search returns. The new interface provides a way users can utilize a conversational model to get answers directly from the social platform. “Once a question is asked, curated summaries of relevant conversations and details across Reddit will appear, including links to related communities and posts,” according to Reddit. Whether users will want to skip their usual go-to search engines in favor of querying Reddit alone could have long term ramifications for the 19-year old social platform, which went public in 2023. Continue reading ‘Reddit Answers’ Wants to Gain More Users Searching In-App

In a deal said to be reshaping the global advertising industry, Omnicom has reached a definitive agreement to acquire a major rival, the Interpublic Group (IPG), in a stock-for-stock transaction. If the deal receives regulatory approval, the New York-based ad giants will combine to form an agency that will be the largest in the world, bringing together ad legends TBWA Worldwide and McCann Worldgroup for what CNBC estimates will be more than $26 billion in annual revenue. The merger joins “world-class, highly complementary data and technology platforms” at a propitious time, thanks to seismic, AI-driven advances in marketing and adtech. Continue reading Omnicom Will Acquire Interpublic in Major Ad Industry Merger

Meta Platforms has packed more artificial intelligence into a smaller package with Llama 3.3, which the company released last week. The open-source large language model (LLM) “improves core performance at a significantly lower cost, making it even more accessible to the entire open-source community,” Meta VP of Generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle wrote on X social. The 70 billion parameter text-only Llama 3.3 is said to perform on par with the 405 billion parameter model that was part of Meta’s Llama 3.1 release in July, with less computing power required, significantly lowering its operational costs. Continue reading Meta’s Llama 3.3 Delivers More Processing for Less Compute

Google DeepMind’s new Genie 2 is a large foundation world model that generates interactive 3D worlds that are being likened to video games. “Games play a key role in the world of artificial intelligence research,” says Google DeepMind, noting “their engaging nature, challenges and measurable progress make them ideal environments to safely test and advance AI capabilities.” Based on a simple prompt image, Genie 2 is capable of producing “an endless variety of action-controllable, playable 3D environments” — suitable for training and evaluating embodied agents — that can be played by a human or AI agent using keyboard and mouse inputs. Continue reading DeepMind Genie 2 Creates Worlds That Emulate Video Games

YouTube’s Global Culture & Trends Report for 2024 is out, providing a snapshot of the year’s trending topics, top songs and leading creators from across the globe. The Paris Olympic Games appeared on 10 of 12 countries’ trending topics lists, “emphatically illustrating that non-digital-native franchises can thrive in a digital culture,” YouTube says. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is another such example. Also hot in 2024, “digital franchises” — independent creator content driven to success by online communities. Examples include Roblox’s viral “Dress to Impress” fashion game and the animated series “The Amazing Digital Circus.” Continue reading YouTube Releases Global Trends, Personalized Music Recaps

Taylor Swift ranked first among the world’s musical artists on the annual Spotify Wrapped chart that ranks the year’s top songs, albums, podcasts and audiobooks. Her more than 26.6 billion global streams earned her the preeminent title of Spotify’s Global Top Artist for the second consecutive year. The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish rounded out the top performers, at numbers 2 through 5, respectively. Women dominated the global Top 10 for albums, led by Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” followed by Eilish’s “Hit Me Soft and Hard.” Swift claimed a total of three slots among the Most-Streamed Albums Globally. Continue reading Spotify Wrapped: Swift Leads a Banner Year for Female Artists

After years of focusing on AI infrastructure, Amazon is plunging into the frontier model business with the Nova series. The new family of generative AI models includes the text-to-text model Amazon Nova Micro and Amazon Nova Lite for fast, mobile-friendly apps, and at the upper echelon the multimodal Amazon Nova Pro and Amazon Nova Premier for processing text, images and video. Amazon, which is heavy into production via Amazon Studios and MGM, is also launched two specialty models focused on “studio quality” output — Amazon Nova Canvas for images and Amazon Nova Reel for video. Continue reading Amazon Dives into Generative AI with Nova Foundation Models