Google Just Launched New AI Models for Video and Images

The pace of AI progress is showing no signs of slacking. Following ChatGPT's big image upgrade a few weeks ago, it's now Google's turn to show off new models for generating videos and pictures from text prompts: We've got Veo 3 (for video) and Imagen 4 (for pictures), announced during Google I/O 2025, and they come with some significant improvements.

Starting with Veo 3, it's the next step up from the Veo 2 model that was recently pushed out to paying Gemini subscribers last month. Google says Veo 3 brings with it notable improvements in real-world physics (something AI video often struggles with) and details such as lip-syncing. In short: Your clips should look more realistic than ever.

There's another crucial upgrade here, and that's sound. Previously, Veo-made clips came without any audio attached, but the AI is now smart enough to add in suitable ambient sounds, including traffic noise, wildlife sounds, and even dialog between characters.

Google has provided a few example videos to show off the new capabilities, as you would expect, including Old Sailor. Of course, it's impressive that a clip like this can be produced from a text prompt, and it is up to a high standard in terms of realism—we're no longer getting the six-fingered hands that we used to with AI.

Still, the usual hallmarks of artificial intelligence are evident: This is a generic sailor, on a generic sea, speaking generic dialogue about the ocean. It's a mashing together and averaging out of every video of the sea and old sailors that Veo 3 has been trained on, and may or may not match the original prompt (which Google hasn't given).

Veo 3 is only available to those brave enough to pay $250 a month for Google's AI Ultra plan, but Veo 2 is also getting some upgrades for those of us paying a tenth of that for AI Pro. It's now better at control and consistency, according to Google, with improved camera movements and outpainting (expanding the view of a frame). It can also have a go at adding and removing objects from clips now.

Moving on to images: We've got Imagen 4, the successor to Imagen 3. Here, we're promised "remarkable clarity in fine details like intricate fabrics, water droplets, and animal fur," plus support for higher resolutions (up to 2K) and more aspect ratios. You get top-tier results in both photorealistic and abstract styles, as per Google.

There are sheep as big as tractors in Google's AI world. Credit: Google

Google has also tackled one of the major problems with AI image generation, which is typography. Imagen 4 is apparently much better than the models that came before it in terms of making characters and words look cohesive and accurate, without any weird spellings or letters than dissolve into unintelligible hieroglyphics.

Imagen 4 is available now to all users, inside the Gemini app. Google hasn't mentioned any usage limits, though presumably if you don't have a subscription you'll hit these limits more quickly, as is the case with Imagen 3 (there's no fixed quota for these limits, and it seems they depend on general demand on Google's AI infrastructure).

The carefully curated samples Google has provided look good, without any obvious mistakes or inaccuracies—just the usual AI sheen. Imagen 4 is faster than Imagen 3 too, Google says, with more improvements on the way: A variant on the model that's 10x faster than Imagen 3 is going to be launching soon.

There's one more image and video tool to talk about: Flow. It's an AI filmmaking tool from Google that pulls together its text, video, and image models to help you stitch together successive scenes that are consistent, featuring the same characters and locations. You can use Flow if you're an AI Pro or AI Ultra subscriber, with higher usage limits and better models for those on the more expensive plan.

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