Following on the success of its IP-friendly Firefly Image model, Adobe announced on Wednesday the beta release of a new Firefly Video model, as well as two subscription packages with which to access its audio and video generating abilities. Generate Video, according to the announcement post, “empowers creative professionals with tools to generate video clips from a text prompt or image, use camera angles to control shots, create professional quality images from 3D sketches, craft atmospheric elements and develop custom motion design elements.”
The model will initially be able to generate video in 1080p resolution to start, though the company plans to release a 4k model for professional production work in the near future. Like the image generator, Firefly Video is trained exclusively on Adobe stock, licensed, and public domain content, making its outputs usable in commercial applications without fear of them running afoul of copyright or intellectual property protections. And, unlike Grok 2, there’s minimal chance of it outputting racist, offensive, or illegal content.
Firefly Video will be accessible both through Adobe Premiere Pro (as the Generative Extend tool) and through a new web application , Firefly.Adobe.com. Users will be able to generate video clips from both text prompts and reference images, as well as add atmospheric effects and custom motion design elements. They’ll even be able to lock in the first and last frames of a clip, “to preserve visual continuity, keep colors and character details consistent.”
The new Scene to Image feature allows users to “seamlessly render production-ready assets” using a 3D sketching tool, converting a creator’s concept art into high resolution images and structure references that can then be used to iterate a generated video clip. Firefly Video can also generate audio to translate spoken dialog into any of 20 languages.
Adobe is rolling out a pair of subscription plans alongside Firefly Video, either of which will grant you full access to the new model. The $10 per month Firefly Standard plan offers 2,000 video/audio credits per month worth as many as 20 5-second video generations at 1080p. The $30 per month Firefly Pro plan, on the other hand, provides 7,000 video/audio credits per month which will get you up to 70 5-second clips at 1080p. Adobe also revealed that a “Firefly Premium” plan is in the works, geared towards professionals looking to generate high volumes of video and audio, though there’s no word yet on what it might cost or when it will be released.
Adobe first teased the Firefly video model in April of last year before providing a preview of its capabilities in September. It enters an increasingly crowded market with competition from both premium and free-to use models alike, such as Kling AI, Meta’s Movie Gen, and OpenAI’s Sora.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.