As midrange phones designed to plug the gap between flagships, the Honor 400 and 400 Pro might not ordinarily attract much attention. But these devices—unavailable in the US—are among the first to feature Google’s image-to-video AI generator, based on its Veo 2 model (now available to Gemini subscribers). Built into Honor’s Gallery app, it enables you to select a still photo from your camera roll to bring it to life as a five-second video.
After much experimentation with different photos, from landscapes to family and pets, I’m impressed and weirded out. Like any AI tool, it has the potential to be good or bad, depending on how you wield it, and the results veer from flawless to freaky. It’s a neat trick, and it’s coming to the phone in your hand soon.
Fake Photography
Faking photography is nothing new—the medium is always evolving. Artificial intelligence has been smoothing wrinkles and enhancing skies for years. None of your photos are real, especially those you shot with your phone and edited to post on social media. But we’re pushing beyond creating a fake bokeh background blur or dialing up the colors of a sunset. Creating entirely fake videos from still images feels like a new high and a new low.
The process is easy. Open the Gallery app on the Honor 400 or 400 Pro, choose the Create tab, tap Image to Video, and select one of your photos. Choose a 9:16 or 16:9 aspect ratio for portrait or landscape, then hit start. You need to be connected to the internet. Each five-second video took around 30 seconds to create, but a pop-up message warns me they can take up to two minutes. There’s no room to enter a prompt, so you are left at the mercy of whatever the AI decides to do.
I began with photos of my wife and kids. The first few videos have a major uncanny-valley feel. In one photo, my wife is covering her mouth, and the AI animates her moving her hand and talking, but the mouth it pastes in is entirely wrong. Much to her horror, it gives my daughter a series of facial tics. The video of my selfie comes out well and would surely fool anyone who doesn’t know me, but my wife says she can tell it’s not me because I never make facial expressions like that.
Courtesy of Simon Hill
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