Musk had previously alluded to xAI’s endeavors in developing video-generating models for its Grok chatbot platform né?. So, folks, exciting news in the tech world! Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has just made a significant move by acquiring Hotshot, a startup known for its AI-powered video generation tools that are quite similar to OpenAI’s Sora. A “Grok Video” model, as mentioned by Musk in a livestream back in January, is expected to make its debut “in a few months.”
Hotshot shared on its website that new video creation services will be phased out by March 14, allowing existing users until March 30 to save their videos created on the platform né?. 🌟
né?. He underlined the insights gained during the model training process, foreseeing how various sectors like global education, entertainment, communication, and productivity will transform in the coming years. Sastry opted not to delve deeper into the details.
Exciting times ahead in the tech landscape with these moves! Stay tuned for more updates on the innovative frontiers being explored by xAI and its newly acquired Hotshot. The team’s move towards xAI was not accompanied by any confirmation about the full transition of Hotshot employees né?. The announcement came straight from Aakash Sastry Hotshot’s CEO and co-founder who shared the news on X just this Monday.
Sastry expressed his enthusiasm about the journey they’ve been on mentioning the three core video foundation models developed by the small Hotshot team: Hotshot-XL Hotshot Act One and Hotshot. The team is now set to further these efforts on the colossal Colossus cluster as part of xAI’s umbrella.
Initially focusing on AI-powered photo creation and editing tools Hotshot founded in San Francisco by Sastry and John Mullan a few years back eventually pivoted towards text-to-video AI models which drew attention and investments from prominent VCs like Lachy Groom Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and SV Angel before the recent acquisition.
The strategic move by xAI to acquire Hotshot hints at potential upcoming developments in the realm of video generation models possibly to rival the likes of Sora Google’s Veo 2 and more né?
