The 4 most popular AI video tools

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Friday.

I’ve talked to hundreds of AI creators over the last 6 months, and the same 4 tools keep coming up: Veo, Runway, Kling, and Hailuo.

Tools like Sora, Luma, Pika, and Higgsfield are gaining traction for specific use cases — but take away Veo or Runway, and a lot of creators would be in panic mode.

Here’s the wild part…

Most people forget how young AI video really is.

Look at this timeline:

• February 2023: Runway releases Gen-1, its first video-to-video model

• March 2024: MiniMax releases Hailuo

• May 2024: Google announces Veo, its flagship text-to-video model

• June 2024: Kuaishou releases Kling

Runway has technically been around since 2018 (they raised their $8.5M Series A in 2020), but their popularity really started snowballing a year ago.

And if you missed yesterday’s email, this 1-minute video is more important than you think.

The video isn’t flashy. But like your favorite movies, it’s the slow scenes that quietly change everything.

Because heading into next year, this will be possible:

1. You upload a photo of your face + body, and a 10-second clip of you moving

2. Use AI to make yourself perform stunts, dance, act, or move in ways you never actually did

Or just sync your email and socials and let AI learn how you live.

We’ll continue discussing this, and why more people than you think might actually volunteer to create digital twins of themselves.

And it won’t always mean replicating how you look. It’ll be how you think.

Less mirror, more mind.

If you’re using GPT, Claude, or Gemini…it’s already happening.

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Timbaland officially signs his first AI-generated “artist”

  Grammy-winning music producer and rapper Timbaland has launched an AI entertainment company and signed his first AI “artist.”

• Anthropic has appointed a national security expert

  Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust today announced the appointment of Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, as a new member of the Trust. The Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) is an independent body designed to help Anthropic achieve its public benefit mission.

• LegalZoom announces strategic partnership with Perplexity

  This marks the first known partnership between a legal services provider and a major generative AI platform, underscoring LegalZoom’s commitment to meeting consumers at the cutting edge of how people seek and use information online.

• Apple WWDC 2025 (June 9-13, 2025)

  Last year’s event was notable for its focus on AI (Apple Intelligence). What AI updates will they announce this year?

• INVAMED has officially unveiled Quantum

  A next-generation clinical platform that unites artificial intelligence, advanced computing and patient-specific digital-twin technology under one roof.

The numbers:

• Anduril closed a $2.5B funding round, more than doubling its valuation to $30.5B.

• Cohere is reportedly seeking to raise over $500M in a new funding round.

• Obvio raised $22M in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered pedestrian safety solution.

• Kargo raised $18.4M to develop new AI-powered products that connect supply chain data to help with inventory management.

• Toma, an AI voice agent for car dealerships, raised a $17M Series A.

• Flank, a German startup building an autonomous AI legal agent, raised a $10M round.

• Hirundo secured $8M in seed funding to advance its innovative machine unlearning technology, enabling AI models to "forget" problematic data or behaviors.

Thought starters:

• Demis Hassabis On The Future of Work in the Age of AI

• AI Will Devastate the Future of Work. But Only If We Let It

Meme of the day:

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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