Meta announced two new AI-powered creative tools that will soon be available on Facebook and Instagram. Dubbed Emu Video and Emu Edit, the features leverage Meta’s Emu generative AI model to enable easy video and image editing by using text prompts.

The upcoming functionality will allow users to stylize, customize, and modify their visual social media content through intuitive AI-generated effects. Meta is positioning the new editing capabilities as the next evolution of its generative AI leadership.

Emu Video Brings Text to Motion

Emu Video represents Meta’s push into AI-driven video generation. It can produce multi-second video clips from text descriptions provided by users, constituting a major step up from basic image generators, assuming it works well.

According to Meta, Emu Video employs a two-step “factorized” process to produce an outcome. First, the system generates a static image reflecting the text prompt. It then creates a short animated video based on both the text and the generated image.

By separating video generation into image creation and animation steps, Meta says that Emu Video allows for more efficient training of the AI models involved. The company implemented this approach by using a single diffusion model, optimized for producing high-resolution video.

In demonstrations, Emu Video created smooth and relatively coherent video clips that matched users’ input via text prompts. However, the raw video quality remains well below professional standards, showcasing the technology’s boundaries at this point. Still, Meta sees clear potential for Emu Video to enable new forms of casual self-expression.

The company believes that these AI-generated clips could be useful for creating animated stickers, personalized GIFs, stylized edits of static images, and other effects to enhance social media posts. Emu Video represents a viable middle ground between static images and more complex video editing.

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Seamless Image Editing via Text Prompts with Emu

Complementing Emu Video is Meta’s Emu Edit tool for image generation. Also leveraging the Emu model, Emu Edit allows users to make granular edits to photos through text instructions.

For example, prompts like “put my friend on a beach” or “make this apple blue” enable precise changes without manually selecting or manipulating image regions. Emu Edit focuses only on the relevant pixels tied to the textual prompt.

This approach differs from previous AI photo editing methods that often alter images unpredictably based on freeform text cues. Emu Edit maintains fidelity to the user’s desired edits without affecting unrelated aspects of the image.

To train Emu Edit, Meta Platforms (META) compiled a dataset of 10 million sample images each labeled with an editing instruction and output. This enormous training effort powers Emu Edit’s capabilities spanning from object removals, color and geometry shifts, background changes, and more.

Early testing shows Emu Edit surpassing existing tools in accurately fulfilling edit requests. Meta believes that the technology could allow novice users to make complex adjustments like professionals without deep creative skills.

Empowering Mainstream Creativity with AI-Powered Tools

A driving motivation behind Emu Video and Emu Edit is empowering self-expression and creativity for everyday social media users. These tools aim to open up advanced visual effects to non-experts through intuitive AI.

Meta sees generative editing capabilities like Emu Video and Emu Edit becoming mainstream creative outlets. The company believes that AI can augment human creativity rather than replace it if thoughtfully implemented.

While cautioning that the tools are still in the earliest stages of their development, Meta outlined use cases like users animating personal photos or stylizing static images to liven up their social feeds. Emu Video and Emu Edit provide new avenues for personalized communication and casual artistry via AI.

The Emu-powered editing functionalities represent Meta’s latest product developments in the field of generative AI.

With Emu Video and Emu Edit, Meta seeks to enhance its creative toolkit and cement Emu’s role as a core AI asset. The company views generative models like Emu as enabling technologies to drive customer value across its various platforms.

Meta joins competitors like Google, Amazon (AMZN), and others in pursuing generative AI-infused consumer offerings. Unique access to data from billions of users provides Meta an advantage in training and continuously improving its algorithms.

The company credits its extensive investments in foundational research and technical infrastructure as the bedrock enabling innovations like Emu Video and Emu Edit. Turning research into consumer products requires a combination of state-of-the-art models and industrial-grade deployment systems.

What Lies Ahead for Meta’s AI Push?

Meta says that Emu Video and Emu Edit represent fundamental research areas for now. The social media leader offered no details about if or when the features will be formally launched.

However, unveiling the technologies signals Meta’s eagerness to pioneer new practical applications of generative AI. The company recognizes creative expression as a promising use case for strengthening user engagement and satisfaction.

As Meta continues enhancing Emu and its ecosystem of generative AI capabilities, users can expect to see cutting-edge editing tools integrated natively into their social feeds. While acknowledging the ethical challenges, Meta remains ambitious in delivering the benefits of this technology to consumers.