Surely the first of many to come, the music video for Washed Out’s “The Hardest Part” was created using OpenAI‘s new generative AI video tool, Sora.
Created by experimental filmmaker Paul Trillo, the video is a surrealist nightmare trip running headlong into the future of a frequently re-appearing young couple who seems to age accordingly to the fast pace during the arc of the video. It has a “can’t look away” quality of fascination to it — the call of the uncanny valley.
AI video is there
I spent some time with RunwayML Gen-2 and it wasn’t quite there yet, though you could see the promise. Gen-3 is there now — and Sora is there, and Flux, Hailuo/minimax, and a few others. Here’s the beginning of a longer-form video I did with Sora and Capcut, to be set to something suitably both futuristic and organic (perhaps via Suno V4):
You can definitely see the appeal of AI tools for music video creators, who are often on the cutting edge of new advancements in technology in every transformative era. When the genre itself is meant to be suggestible and fantastical and imaginative, AI tools really shine and some of their elsewhere biggest downsides (randomness, unexpectedness) are downplayed or even valued in the context of a music video.
We’re sure to see more music videos to come, with entrants from the growing stable of competent generative video applications. And beyond music videos, AI filmmaking more broadly is bursting onto the scene with gusto. Here’s a smattering of amazing AI videos and video reels I’ve seen — will aim to keep collecting more here if it’s valuable to folks.