(Bloomberg) — Adobe Inc. is rolling out its AI video product much more slowly than OpenAI rival Sora service, fueling concerns that the creative software maker is falling behind.
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Two months after Adobe announced a browser-based tool capable of generating videos from prompts or images using generative artificial intelligence, the product remains in limited testing, accessible only by a handful of creators who have entered into agreements with the company. Sora, meanwhile, was made available to a wide audience this week.
“To best support a wide variety of use cases and ensure model security, we are opening access to the beta on a limited basis with a focus on collecting feedback,” Adobe says on its website, inviting users to “join the waiting list”. .”
The company, which reports quarterly results on Wednesday, announced the product as part of its Firefly family of AI features at its annual user conference in early October. At the time, it said the tool was already “deployed in limited public beta.” Adobe also launched a tool in Premiere, its video editing application, that allows users to extend video clips using generative AI.
An Adobe spokesperson said Tuesday that the company will expand availability in the coming weeks and months. “Adobe Firefly is the only commercially safe video template available and we saw a strong customer response after the release just six weeks ago. »
In an interview in October after announcing its video tool, Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief strategy officer, said the company was still working on final moderation and security of the model.
On Monday, OpenAI made its Sora video generation model available to those who already pay for its ChatGPT chatbot. This full release comes nearly 10 months after the startup first publicly demonstrated the technology. Monday’s release caused technical difficulties for some users, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on social network X that “we significantly underestimated the demand for Sora.”
As startups like OpenAI, Midjourney, and Runway AI have developed AI tools to generate photos and videos, the availability of similar features in Adobe products has become a major priority for investors and users. Adobe’s stock has fallen 8.3% this year, lagging its industry peers, partly due to fears about AI-related disruption.