ByteDance unveils OpenAI’s Sora rival “Jimeng AI” in China
ByteDance has entered the AI video generation market with the latest software called Jimeng AI, which generates videos from text. This release puts ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, in direct rivalry with other tech companies and new entrants in the market.
Jimeng AI is a text-to-video generation model that became popular after OpenAI released Sora in February of this year. The app has recently been launched on the Apple Store after being released for Android in July.
Chinese companies unveil competing text-to-video models
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, noted that the public release of Sora is likely to happen in the coming year. This new release is expected to further intensify competition in the generative AI market. Over the past few months, a few Chinese companies have released their text-to-video models as well. Kuaishou, a Chinese video app company, launched its Kling AI model to the international market at the end of last month. It has recently launched the beta version of its Kling AI.
Also, the Chinese AI company Zhipu AI released its video generation model, Ying, in the last month. Right after, Shengshu, another startup, presented its Vidu application, thus increasing the rivalry in the market. Faceu Technology also has another popular video editing application, CapCut.
U.S. House bans ByteDance apps on official devices
The news comes as, the House of Representatives plans to purge all ByteDance apps from House-issued devices by August 15, as stated in an internal memo. This directive builds on the earlier prohibition of TikTok, which had been in place since December 2022.
Other ByteDance apps that will be impacted by the new policy include CapCut, Hypic, Lark, and Lemon8. Originally, the mobile application would be uninstalled, and then the desktop and web applications would be removed. House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor said that employees with ByteDance apps on their devices will be contacted in order to assist in the removal. ByteDance has been under pressure from U. S. lawmakers as a possible threat to national security due to its connection with the Chinese Communist Party.
