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Artificial intelligence startup Runway on Monday announced Gen 4.5, a new video model that outperforms previous similar models. google Independent Benchmark OpenAI.
Gen 4.5 allows users to generate high-definition videos based on written prompts that describe desired movements or actions. Runway said the model is great at understanding physics, human movement, camera movement, and cause-and-effect relationships.
The model holds the number one spot on Video Arena’s leaderboard, a position maintained by independent AI benchmarking and analysis company Artificial Analysis. To determine the ranking of text-to-video models, people compare two different model outputs and vote for their favorite model without knowing which company is sponsoring it.
Google’s Veo 3 model holds second place on the leaderboard, while OpenAI’s Sora 2 Pro model is in seventh place.
“With a team of 100 people, we were able to compete against multi-trillion dollar companies,” Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said in an interview with CNBC. “You can reach the frontier just by being very focused and diligent.”
Runway was founded in 2018 and was named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list this year. Conduct AI research and build video and world models. These models are trained on video and observational data to better reflect how the physical world works.
The startup’s customers include media organizations, studios, brands, designers, creators, and students. Its valuation has ballooned to $3.55 billion, according to Pitchbook.
Valenzuela said the code name for Gen 4.5 is “David,” after the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The model was “an overnight success that took about seven years,” he said.
“It feels like a very interesting moment because we’re in an era of efficiency and research,” Valenzuela said. “[We’re]excited about the ability to make sure that AI isn’t dominated by two or three companies.”
Gen 4.5 is being rolled out in stages and is expected to be available to all Runway customers by the end of this week. Valenzuela said this is the first of several major releases planned by the company.
“This will be available through Runway’s platform, application programming interfaces, and some of the company’s partners,” he said.
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