ByteDance Clarifies: “Boximator” Remains a Research Project So Far, Not on Par with Sora in AI Video Modeling

In early February, before OpenAI released Sora, ByteDance quietly launched a video model product called Boximator. Boximator can generate actions of characters or objects in videos based on text input.

According to Chinese media Jiemian citing sources from ByteDance, Boximator is a research project on controlling object movements in the field of video generation technology. Currently, it is not yet a fully developed product and there is still a significant gap compared to leading foreign video generation models in terms of picture quality, fidelity, video duration, and other aspects.

ByteDance started laying out its AI strategy last year and established a new department called Flow dedicated to AI innovation in November. A source close to ByteDance told Interface News that over the past year, ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming has devoted all his time to AI. This focus on AI can also be seen in how his energy is allocated, showing ByteDance’s emphasis on AI business.

The source revealed that ByteDance is currently mobilizing elite forces from across the company to support its AI business. Zhu Jun, former product lead at TikTok and current Vice President of Product and Strategy at ByteDance, has been appointed as the head of Flow. Additionally, some core product personnel from TikTok have been transferred to Flow.

Currently, ByteDance’s Flow department has launched three AI conversational products, including Dou Bao, Kou Zi, and Cici. Dou Bao is a chatbot product that can perform various tasks such as question answering, text generation, and language translation. It can also provide personalized services by adapting responses based on user needs and context. Kou Zi is an all-in-one AI Bot development platform that allows users to quickly build various types of question-answering bots based on AI models, regardless of their programming background, handling simple Q&A and complex dialogues.

Compared to internet giants like Alibaba and Baidu, ByteDance has taken a relatively low-profile approach in the field of AI and large-scale models. Currently, ByteDance’s AI products such as Dou Bao, Kou Zi, and Cici have not been heavily promoted or widely publicized, and ByteDance has not officially disclosed its research direction and layout in the field of AI.

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