Industry leaders share new perspectives on generative media for startups

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Generative media is already giving startups a creative edge, and we're moving toward a world of "vibe design," where a founder will soon be able bring their vision to life without help from a coder or editor. If you can describe it, you'll be able to build it with AI.

To understand this shift, we asked a group of startup founders, investors and thought leaders for their boldest predictions. What will these changes mean for startups? What innovative tools are startups building already? What will user experiences look like in the future thanks to AI? We're sharing our findings in Google for Startups' latest report, the "Future of AI: Perspectives on generative media for startups." Here are three predictions that stood out.

Videos will replace static content.

As the cost of creating videos continues to drop, "static content will take a back seat," says Victor Riparbelli, co-founder and CEO of Synthesia. He envisions training programs where 45-second videos replace long presentations, and B2B websites that use audio and video modules instead of plain text.

But these AI-generated videos, which, at their worst, can feel "soulless, generic and homogeneous," will need input from humans if they're going to resonate, says Grace Wang, co-founder and CMO of OpusClip. "Story judgment, taste and unique points of view are becoming exponentially more valuable."

This evolution won't just change how businesses communicate, it will rewrite the rules of filmmaking. As AI does more of the heavy lifting in production and execution, some "films will soon be made by individuals, similar to how a single person writes a book," predicts Joaquín Cuenca Abela, co-founder and CEO of Magnific (formerly Freepik). While high-end films might have a team of 50, he thinks that within three years, a startup with a story to tell but limited manpower will be able to generate long-form videos by leaning on AI.

Interfaces will evolve into extensions of the mind.

We could be moving toward a post-keyboard world, where traditional interfaces and form factors may disappear. Grace Isford, a partner at Lux Capital, anticipates a shift toward neural and brain-computer interfaces that intuit thoughts. "We're starting to see some very interesting frontier advancements in the brain-computer interface space," Isford says. "It's a whole new modality, capable of intuiting and interpreting neural signals to then become an extension of your mind."

Founders will be creative directors.

In the past, creative execution required specific design tools and the skills to use them, but "these traditional barriers to entry are rapidly dissolving," says Jaclyn Konzelmann, a director of product management at Google Labs. Generative media tools like Pomelli "will transform how [startups] create on-brand marketing assets."

Sami Ede, a co-founder and senior researcher at Leonardo.Ai, sees a world in which those assets extend far beyond images and video. It may eventually be possible, he says, for haptics to simulate textures by dragging your finger across a touchpad. As technology advances, AI-generated haptic patterns could "easily become part of a brand's toolkit."

Read the full Future of AI report for more insights on the evolution of generative media, and more predictions from founders as they imagine the next wave of startups that will be bolstered by AI.

• Entrepreneurs