Over the past few days, Google's realistic Veo 3 model has generated videos and dialogues that approach realism, moving away from AI-generated text-to-video videos. Now, Microsoft has joined the fight by offering a free video generation portion with Bing Video Creator.
Unfortunately, new Bing video creators will come with compromising executives, but the premise is still true. You can download the Bing mobile application for your smartphone and generate 10 “fast” 5 seconds creations for free, but you will have to pay more credits or wait longer on Microsoft's system.
Here's how Bing Video Creator works: what It's not going well.
How to Use Bing Video Creator
Microsoft's free Bing app for smartphones is essentially the start menu for all Microsoft's mobile services. (Use the Android application for reference.) You can use it to search for Bing and read news (including the Paywalled News selection). Google prefers to use the Gemini application, but Microsoft's Copilot looks prominent.
Mark Hackman/Foundry
For now, Microsoft is hiding the new Bing video creator behind the “Apps” icon in the bottom right corner. There are many small utility applications out there, from stock trackers to wallpapers, selected videos, and more. “Video Creator” is hidden in the third rank on the “All Apps” list.
Essentially, Bing Video Creator is a video completion for Bing Image Creator, and the app works just as well. Enter the prompt and Bing will create an image or video according to the selected tab. Currently, only one format is accessible. That is, it's 9:16 portrait mode on your mobile phone. The video is only 5 seconds long and contains no dialogue or sound.
Mark Hackman/Foundry
Microsoft said the video was generated using Sora, an Openai video generator that previously only available to ChatGPT subscribers for a fee.
Because the task is relatively simple, you don't have to worry about adding the complexities you might find in tutorials on how to create text-to-video, such as VEO, or how to use Intel's new AI playground application locally. You can try complicated things like specifying a camera or whether the “camera” likes to pan. The bread seems to be working, but 5 seconds doesn't give you complicated instructions.
Will it work? Well, a bit. You might think that prompts like “Microsoft Clippy on Mosh Pit, jumping around to music” will be understood by Bing Video Creator. Not at all.
Poor clips have been reduced to trash cans. Or is it a recycled bottle?
The second prompt, “Leprechaun who works as a bartender in an Irish pub and serves beer” has actually been much better. There is no “beer” in the scene, but Leprechaun would otherwise appear to be happy and in line with the scene.
Don't expect to generate videos of popular people doing meme-esque things. Several recent prompts from politicians and celebrities have generated content warnings. Microsoft struggled to make the AI generation as vanilla as possible – after some early and notable mistakes, this appears to coincide with that trend.
There's another catch. You will need to download or save the video generation because Microsoft will erase them after the 90-day deadline.
So, what if you're so obsessed with Microsoft's free video generation and want to create more and more? Don't forget that Microsoft gives customers 10 free “fast” generations to generate videos in minutes. There are also unlimited “standard” generations, but they can take several hours, and Microsoft probably because you'll be pushed behind the queue.
You can also “buy” a new high-speed generation by “paying” them with 100 Microsoft Rewards points.
Does Bing Video Creator eventually arrive at Windows, Copilot, and/or Microsoft web pages and apps? probably. A Microsoft blog post announcing Bing Video Creator shows some videos in landscape mode rather than portraits.
Personally, I found Google's AI image generation tool is better than what Microsoft offers, at least recently. I haven't tried Google's VEO 3 video generation yet, but it's obviously a great option based on examples floating above the web. Nonetheless, Microsoft's Bing Video Creator offers you free “Meme” possible videos. It's something…until the competition offers something better,
