It\u2019s a beautiful, balmy afternoon at Dolores Park in San Francisco, and I\u2019m singing a birthday song to a prehistoric dinosaur. A cupcake with a pink candle magically appears in my empty hand as I finish my serenade. When I blow out the flame, a calm look of contentment washes over the CGI-esque creature.<\/p>\n
While the man in this AI video looks and sounds just like me, the clip was actually generated<\/a> using one of the new features available in Google\u2019s Gemini app: avatars<\/a>. These digital recreations are similar to the core features of OpenAI\u2019s now-defunct Sora app<\/a>. It\u2019s a digital clone of you that can be inserted into AI videos. Avatars are powered by the company\u2019s new Omni video model, and the feature is only available to subscribers.<\/p>\n I pay $20 a month for Google\u2019s AI Pro plan<\/a> and quickly maxed out Gemini\u2019s usage limits, which reset every 5 hours. I simply asked a few questions and generated two 10-second clips featuring my avatar, before I was told to wait until later.<\/p>\n Video: Reece Rogers<\/p>\n My first two glimpses of what Omni can do with my likeness were of me singing to a dino in San Francisco and surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge. I was simultaneously impressed and freaked out. The content was cringeworthy, with some jumbled moments and nonsensical outfits, but that man in the video was me. I used my fingers to zoom in on its face and really watch the mouth move. The teeth were a bit off, but otherwise that\u2019s Reece, right on down to the chin fat.<\/p>\n Unlike OpenAI<\/a>, which previously let users decide whether they wanted others to generate AI videos using their likeness, Google<\/a> only lets adult users make videos with their own avatar.<\/p>\n