A team of researchers based in Bulgaria insightcollaboration with Netflixhave jointly developed a new open-source AI model that can transform the way video editing and visual effects are performed.
A model called VOID (Delete video objects and interactions)was released on April 3rd under the Apache 2.0 license. It represents a huge leap forward in AI-driven video editing by not only removing objects from footage, but also reconstructing the scene in a physically consistent way.
This project was led by researchers Saman Motamed. This release is Netflix Research’s first publicly available AI tool.
Physics-aware video editing
Unlike traditional tools that simply erase visual elements, VOID simulates how the scene changes after objects are removed. The system takes into account movement, object interactions, and changes in the environment in a way that mimics real-world physics.
This interaction-aware approach represents a shift from static editing to editing. Understanding dynamic scenesan area in which INSAIT researchers are actively contributing.
A human preference study with 25 participants selected VOID with a probability of 64.8%outperforms some existing tools. Among them are runwaya leading commercial platform, received an approval rating of 18.4% in head-to-head comparisons.
Hybrid AI pipeline combining global technologies
The system integrates multiple AI components from leading technology organizations.
- metaSAM2 for object segmentation
- googleScene analysis with Gemini 3 Pro
- Alibaba’s CogVideoX for video generation
The core of the model is “Quad Mask” FrameworkThis allows the AI to understand what to remove and how surrounding elements will react.
This research was conducted using large-scale computing infrastructure and synthetic datasets, and INSAIT contributed to the development and experimentation process.
World-class AI research hub
INSAIT is a collaboration between Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne. It is supported by $100 million from the Bulgarian government and additional funding from SiteGround, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Bulgarian entrepreneurs, DeepMind and business angels.
INSAIT is focused on conducting world-class research and attracting faculty, research scientists, postdocs, and doctoral students.
