Sora’s reign in the generative video space is already facing a formidable competitor, even before Meta’s highly anticipated AI has been released. Kuaishou Technology, a Chinese tech giant, has announced the global availability of its Kling AI video generation system. Previously launched in China last month, Kling was restricted to users within the country and required a Chinese phone number for access. The global rollout simplifies access, requiring only an email address and a fair amount of patience.
Kling stands out with its ability to generate high-definition video clips up to two minutes in length, double what Sora is reportedly capable of producing. It achieves this at 30 frames per second (fps) and 720p resolution. Users can leverage a 2,000-character context window and provide both text and image inputs to create quick 5-second clips. These can be sequentially extended by 4.5 seconds at a time, according to the company’s website. Kuaishou has announced that users will receive 66 credits per day, with each video generation costing 10 credits. A subscription model is reportedly under development.
Despite its impressive generative capabilities, Kling faces limitations. It cannot produce videos of a politically sensitive nature. A TechCrunch report revealed that prompts like “Democracy in China,” “Chinese President Xi Jinping walking down the street” and “Tienanmen Square protests” elicit nonspecific error messages. However, users can still upload and animate images of the same subjects, as long as the subject isn’t explicitly named in the prompt. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that China’s internet regulator plans to implement purity tests for AI systems developed in-country to ensure they align with “core socialist values” on sensitive topics, including criticism of the Communist Party and its leader.
Kling’s performance also suffers from slow processing speeds. A 5-second clip can take up to 15 minutes or more to generate. Even receiving an email verification code proved inordinately time-consuming. It remains unclear whether this lag stems from infrastructure issues or overwhelming user demand.
Kling isn’t the sole competitor to Sora. Runway released its Gen-3 video AI earlier this month, capable of creating clips up to 10 seconds in length. Luma Labs debuted Dream Machine in June, which encountered similar performance issues due to user overload at launch.
