By offering these capabilities, Pika aims to attract filmmakers and eliminate the need for separate cinematographers, videographers, sound designers, and even actors. Instead of sourcing content from various databases and programs, Pika allows users to generate everything they need faster and more directly from their imagination.
The sound effects feature works in two ways. The contextual generation approach lets the AI models decide what audio would go best with the clip being produced from the text prompt. The follow-up approach allows users to add specific AI-generated sounds after generating or uploading an audio-less clip. Users can write a text prompt describing the sound they want to add, and the model will generate multiple options for them to choose from.
While Pika is not the only company exploring sound generation with text prompts, it claims to be the first in the AI video space to include generated audio as part of the video output. Competitors like ElevenLabs and Meta also offer similar technologies but lack a built-in video generative AI model.
The rollout of Pika’s sound effects feature is expected to enhance AI video creators’ abilities and streamline the creative process. Previously, users had to source audio from other sources, adding friction and taking more time. Pika plans to iterate on and improve the capability based on feedback from early users before making it available to all platform users.
Pika has been actively strengthening its offering against competitors since launching its web platform in December 2023. It recently partnered with ElevenLabs to introduce lip-sync capabilities, allowing users to add AI voices to their videos. Pika plans to continue building on this work with more features in the pipeline. The startup has raised $55 million in funding and is taking on well-funded players in the creative AI space, including Adobe, Runwa, Stability AI, and Haiper.
Pika’s mission is to provide an all-in-one generative AI video creation platform that empowers filmmakers and creators to bring their visions to life more efficiently and creatively. With the addition of sound effects, Pika is one step closer to achieving that goal.
