Pika challenges OpenAI and Sora with new AI video generator features
- Pika just released the Pika 2.0 AI video maker with advanced customization tools
- You can upload and customize characters, objects, and settings with the new Scene Ingredients feature
- Pika 2.0 offers a contrast to OpenAI’s Sora by targeting individuals rather than large studios
AI video maker Pika Labs is metaphorically putting OpenAI and Sora in the spotlight with a new version of its platform. Pika 2.0 comes with a range of new features for creating custom videos with AI and arrives just weeks after the company released the Pika 1.5 model with its many new visual effects.
Pika even makes unsubtle jokes about OpenAI by describing Pika 2.0 as “Not just for professionals. For real people. (Even Europeans!)”, referring to Sora’s business focus and its limited global release that doesn’t include European countries so far.
Rivalry aside, Pika 2.0 has a lot of new benefits, making it quite attractive. The most notable is Scene Ingredients. Imagine a virtual kitchen with a stock of video elements to choose from. You choose the characters, props, backgrounds and other components you want to use and let Pika’s AI mix and bake them.
Suppose you want to make a video of a cat surfing in space. Until now you had to write a prompt for the video, perhaps with an image reference for the cat. With Scene Ingredients, you can upload the photo of your favorite cat, a beautiful background image of the night sky, and a photo of your dream surfboard, and Pika will turn it into a delightful, cohesive scene.
Even without images to embed in videos, Pika 2.0 understands text prompts better thanks to improved text alignment. If you’ve ever typed a prompt into an AI tool and gotten something that only vaguely resembled what you wanted, you’ll probably find that Pika is less likely to mess up your idea when creating the video.
If you ask for a dragon flying over a medieval castle during sunset, the AI is much more likely to show you a video with a dragon actually flying, a castle that looks like a castle, and a sunset that looks like doesn’t look like. a lava explosion. And thanks to the improved motion rendering, all the characters in the video can walk, fly, roller skate or cartwheel without appearing as if they are floating or their joints are not all connected.
Pika for everyone
Pika’s pitch is about giving the average person or small group control over video creation, without making it too complicated. Hence the intentional, albeit indirect, mocking of OpenAI and Sora for their Hollywood-level focus projects. Pika 2.0 is for those who create clips for TikTok or marketing videos for side hustles.
However, that doesn’t mean that Pika doesn’t have other competition besides OpenAI. There are AI video platforms for all kinds of projects: Pollo, Runway, Stability AI, Hotshot, and Luma Labs’ Dream Machine have something to offer the average aspiring AI filmmaker.
If you want to try out Pika 2.0, it’s available for free and paid users, with limits for the free version. If desired, you can also switch back to previous models.