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What is MiniMax AI?
MiniMax AI is a catch-all term for text-to-video and other generative AI tools from Chinese AI startup MiniMax. The company’s first product, Video-01, generates hyper-realistic moving images of humans. It’s known for rendering accurate hand motions – a capability that competing AI video products like OpenAI‘s Sora have struggled with.
Users input a text description into Video-01 to generate an AI-generated video up-to six seconds long. After receiving the text prompt, the software takes about two minutes to create a video. Video-01 was released to the public on 2nd September, 2024.
Key Takeaways
- MiniMax AI refers to the AI software platform being developed by Chinese startup MiniMax.
- Video-01, the company’s first text-to-video AI tool, was launched in September 2024.
- MiniMax says future iterations of Video-01 (Video-02, Video-03 …) will offer additional capabilities; for example, allowing users to edit the videos they create.
- Other MiniMax AI products fall under its consumer-facing Hailuo AI brand and include AI text generation similar to ChatGPT and text-to-music creation.
- The term MinimMax AI is used generically to describe MiniMax, the company, its Hailuo AI platform, and/or its individual AI products.
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How MiniMax AI Works
Like GenAI solutions, MiniMax AI works by interpreting text or image ‘prompts’ supplied by an end user. The information in the prompt is then interpreted by the solution’s Large Language Model (LLM), which then generates a result in text, image, or audio form.
MiniMax was founded in 2021 counts Alibaba and Tencent amongst its lead investors. An Alibaba-led funding round in 2023 was reported to have valued the company at more than USD 2.5 billion. The company was amongst the first companies approved by Beijing in 2023 to offer large language models for public use in China.
What is MiniMax Video?
After selecting Video-01 from the company’s home page or the Hailuoai.com platform website, users type a prompt into the free text field at the top of the screen, which describes a video or scene they would like to create. The software then processes the description and generates a six-second video from it.
Key Features of MiniMax AI
MiniMax AI’s text-to-video product offers these key features:
How to Use MiniMax AI
After loading the Minimax AI home page in their web browser, users select from one of four AI applications:
- Text-to-video
- Text-to-music
- Text generation
- Photo analysis
After choosing a solution and clicking the link, users then enter a text prompt into the field at the top of the solution’s home page.
When text-to-video is selected, MiniMax AI takes roughly two minutes to generate a result.
At the time of writing, access to MiniMax Ai tools was free. No registration or payment was required
MiniMax AI vs. Kling AI
The MiniMax AI video generator launch happened shortly after the public unveiling of Kling AI, a competing product from Hong Kong video tech company Kuaishou Technology.
So far, early reviews have found the two solutions to be close in terms of quality and capabilities. However, MinMax AI edges ahead in areas like understanding context and detailed character representations.
For contrast:
- Video-01 is better at narratives that center on people or characters, rendering, for example, small movements such as hand and finger gestures realistically.
- Kling AI is more effective at rendering natural settings, for example, realistic portrayals of the environment including forests, oceans, fields, mountains, and other landscapes.
What are Some Effective Prompts to Use With MiniMax AI?
City scene: Using a monochrome black-and-white Parisian urban street setting with people walking, cyclists driving, and cars in motion, add blur to moving objects and focus on a single building doorway in color. The door is green, it opens slowly.
Moving car: Build a medium close-up image of a glistening green car in a showroom, create a tracking shot following its slow forward movements on a reflective surface, and emphasize reflections of spotlights and neon lighting.
MiniMax AI Real-World Examples
Below are several examples of MiniMax AI:
MiniMax AI Advantages and Limitations
- Exceptionally detailed human movements, technological environments, and vibrant animated scenes
- Great for projects involving character-driven narratives and humans in motion
- Currently free to use and supports multiple video styles
- Less effective at accurate animal representation or nuanced human facial expressions
- Currently limited to 6-second duration
- Adds a watermark to generated videos
MiniMax AI Future
At the free text-to-video AI tool’s September launch event, MiniMax told the press that future updates to Video-01 will allow users to create videos of longer duration (expected to be around 10 seconds), edit the videos they generate, and create videos from images as well as text input.
The Bottom Line
MiniMax AI is the latest entrant in the text-to-video category, which by any definition, is AI’s current ‘space to watch.’ Initial reviews have found it to be highly effective for creating futuristic settings and interpreting hand and finger movements, which other AI video tools have not always been able to render accurately.
The company hopes to build on that breakthrough and improve the tool in areas like nuanced facial expression in future versions of the software.
FAQs
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References
- 海螺AI—MiniMax 旗下生产力产品，你的AI伙伴，10倍速提升工作学习效率 (Hailuoai)
- MiniMax-与用户共创智能 (Minimaxi)
- Subscribe to read (Ft)
- 海螺视频-MiniMax旗下产品，引领视频创作变革 (Hailuoai)
- KLING AI (Klingai)
- Chinese AI ‘tiger’ MiniMax launches text-to-video-generating model to rival OpenAI’s Sora | South China Morning Post (Scmp)
- wsj.com (Wsj)
