Google wants you to use AI to make your next video. During the tech giant’s annual developers conference, Google announced a number of Gemini AI updates, including some focused on content creation.
For US users, the Gemini app is rolling out the next generations of Google’s AI image and video generators, named Imagen 4 and Veo 3, respectively. Both got standard upgrades, and notably Veo 3 got a new ability to natively generate audio for AI video clips. For creators, the real excitement is with an AI tool called Flow.
Flow is the latest step in Google’s AI video project, building off of Google Lab’s VideoFX experiment announced at last year’s I/O. Flow is a separate program from Imagen and Veo, but it uses those models to fuel creation. Google demoed the program during the keynote, showing how Flow can be used to create AI video clips and stitch them together into longer sequences. You can enter text and image prompts to create AI videos, and you can upload your own images or generate some with Imagen. Flow also offers specific editing features, like camera controls which let you adjust the angles and motions of a shot. It also has a scene-builder feature that lets you extend clips you shot using AI.
Flow is also rolling out now for US users in the Gemini app, but you’ll need a paid subscription to access it. You can try out a limited version of Flow with the Google AI Pro plan ($20 per month) which gets you 100 generations per month. If you want to try out the audio generation with Veo 3 and get more Flow features, you’ll need Google’s newest premium tier, Ultra, for $250 per month.
When Google introduced Flow, the company said that it was «build for creatives, by creatives.» A few filmmakers that showed off how they used Flow in their filmmaking process, including Dave Clark, Henry Daubrez and Julie Lau.
Flow was an unexpected announcement to today’s keynote, and it shows how Google is continuing to invest in developing AI creative models. There are a lot of other players in the AI creative game — Adobe has undergone a massive AI makeover, OpenAI unveiled its first native image generator earlier this year, and there are many other AI creative start-ups, too. Flow certainly helps ramp up Google’s presence in the industry, but we will have to wait until we can test it out to see how it ranks. The variety of editing tools Google says Flow will have should match offerings in Sora and Firefly. But in my view, it will need to bring some serious firepower to justify the price tag.
Generative AI in digital creation is a controversial subject. One of creators’ biggest concerns is around how AI models are trained. Google’s Gemini privacy policy says the company can collect information from your chats and files. You also have to agree to Google’s prohibited use policy, which aims to prevent the creation of abusive and illegal content.
Google announced many other AI updates during the I/O keynote. Google is teaming up with HP on a new visual technology called Project Starline. The company is also expanding how you can interact with its AI Overviews in Google Search, with more agentic shopping help. Gemini Live is now completely free for Android and iOS users. Last week, Google hosted a separate event focused on Android where we saw Material 3 Expressive, a new visual identity and interface for Android devices and the next generation of software for Pixel phones and smart watches.
For more, you can check out everything announced at Google I/O and top picks for AI image generators.
