AI video just took a big leap forward — Pika Labs adds lip syncing

(Image credit: Pika Labs)

Pika Labs, one of the leading AI video platforms, has added a new feature that can bring voice to generated characters.

What is Lip Sync from Pika Labs

Until now most artificial intelligence generated video clips have been just that, clips showing a scene, a person or a situation. They haven’t had the interactivity of a character speaking to the camera or to someone else on screen.

I haven’t tried Lip Sync myself yet, as it’s currently only available to users subscribed to the Pro plan or above, but from what I’ve seen of others generations, it isn’t perfect but very close to being production ready. At the very least it will present a cheap way to get a pilot off the ground quickly.

Runway and Pika Labs have been the dominant platforms for true generative video for the past few months. Early to market and iterating quickly, with Runway revealing its synthetic voice-over service last year — but not synched to video.

StabilityAI also has a new version of Stable Video Diffusion and Leonardo is offering motion for any of its AI generated images. Google has Lumiere and Meta has Emu, forcing the early players to add new features before everyone else catches up.

What comes next?

Up until now we’ve seen silos in generative AI. Tools that make images, tools that create videos, services for writing a script and something else to add sound. The next step will be greater levels of convergence, with platforms emerging offering full end-to-end production from a simple text prompt.

A few minutes later you’d have a timeline with a series of videos, parts spoken by characters using ElevenLabs synthetic voices and appropriate sound effects and music playing to bring the full production to life.