The puppet influencers are coming…in 2025. | Image: The Verge / Adam Mosseri
Instagram is planning to introduce a generative AI editing feature next year that will allow users to “change nearly any aspect of your videos.” The tech is powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model according to a teaser posted by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and aims to provide creators with more tools to help transform their content and bring their ideas to life without extensive video editing or manipulation skills.
Mosseri says the feature can make adjustments using a “simple text prompt.” The announcement video includes previews of early research AI models that change Mosseri’s outfit, background environments, and even his overall appearance — in one scene transforming him into a felt puppet. Other changes are more subtle, such as adding new objects to the existing background or a gold chain around Mosseri’s neck without altering the rest of his clothing.
It’s an impressive preview. The inserted backgrounds and clothing don’t distort unnaturally when Mosseri rapidly moves his arms or face, but the snippets we get to see are barely a second long. The early previews of OpenAI’s Sora video model also looked extremely polished, however, and the results we’ve seen since it became available to the public haven’t lived up to those expectations. We won’t know how good Instagram’s AI video tools truly are by comparison until they launch.
Meta unveiled its Movie Gen AI video generator in October, which promises to “preserve human identity and motion” in the videos it creates or edits. The announcement was made months after similar models from competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Adobe’s Firefly Video model, the latter of which is already powering beta text-to-video editing tools inside Premiere Pro. Meta hasn’t announced when Movie Gen will be available but Instagram is the first platform that the company has confirmed will utilize the text-to-video model.
