AI videos, China's stealing the show

Chinese companies like ByteDance are pulling ahead of giants like Google in the race to generate video from text or pictures through AI. And their business is booming overseas. Creating an advertisement from a photograph or script reduces costs and entry barriers in video creation, which could affect the business model of the entertainment industry globally. Chinese tech companies have an initial advantage in terms of the data they can use to train their models on, but competition will level the field as the segment matures. We are nowhere close to producing an AI-generated version of Terminator yet; the models are, however, getting good enough to be used in the gaming industry.

AI-generated video is an instance of innovative technology diffusion. Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft-backed OpenAI have been slow off the block after initially demonstrating its capabilities. Nifty Chinese companies are already monetising the segment as Silicon Valley figures out audiences and revenue. The Chinese have dipped into their video-heavy entertainment ecosystem and their large technology workforce, operating in a more competitive environment. China is pushing the envelope in automated manufacturing, and AI-generated design is finding its way into areas, such as the textile industry.

AI is now being taken over by disruptors rather than innovators. TikTok led the disruption in the social media landscape, and its parent, ByteDance, is building on its success by taking the notion of AI in film forward to AI as filmmaker. The process is aided by open-source technology development that speeds up innovation by letting it outside proprietary walled gardens. China is in a strong position relative to the US in AI, and efforts to restrict its access to high-end semiconductors can only strengthen its resolve to make its own chips. Customers don't care where AI-generated videos are being created, and the Chinese are running away with their commercialisation-much as they did with EVs and drones.