Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Google began rolling out its video generation model Veo 3 to paying subscribers of Gemini’s AI plan ($20) in 159 countries.

The service is capped at three up to eight-second-long videos per day.

Veo 3 was shown off in May during the Google I/O 2025 developer conference.

Google featured Veo 3 as an “AI filmmaking tool to create cinematic scenes and stories.” It generates sound effects, background noises, and even dialogue to accompany the videos it creates. Veo 3 also improves upon its predecessor, Veo 2, in terms of the quality of footage it can generate.

The user describes, with text prompts, scenes they have in mind, and a video is created.

The company introduced a more advanced version dubbed “Google AI Ultra,” available at $124.99 per month, which provides access to the 2.5 Pro Deep Think advanced reasoning model.

Additional examples of these short cinematic videos, provided by Google along with their corresponding text prompts, can be found on this page.

In this area of video generation, Google competes with Microsoft, Scenario, Runway, Pika, and OpenAI’s Sora. Other startups include Lightricks, Genmo, Higgsfield, Kling, Luma, and Alibaba. However, audio output stands to be a big differentiator for Veo 3.

Google didn’t disclose where it sourced the content to train Veo 3, but analysts say that YouTube is a strong possibility.

UPDATE July 1, 2025: 

Google said on Thursday it’s adding an image-to-video generation feature to its Veo 3. The company had already rolled out this feature in its video tool called Flow, which was launched in May at Google’s I/O developer conference.

IBL News | New York

Mattel, the U.S. maker of Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Uno cars, is partnering with OpenAI to develop toys and games that incorporate AI into the play experience.

The first product is expected to be released later this year.

The move comes at a time when toy manufacturers are grappling with President Trump’s shifting trade policy toward China.

Mattel will also incorporate OpenAI’s advanced AI tools, such as ChatGPT Enterprise, into its business operations to enhance product innovation, the company said.

In the last year, Mattel has relied on producing films, TV shows, and mobile games based on its products to reduce the impact of a slowdown in its core toy business.

“With OpenAI, Mattel has access to an advanced set of AI capabilities alongside new tools to enable productivity, creativity, and company-wide transformation at scale,” said OpenAI operating chief Brad Lightcap.