Video AI startup Runway ML, backed by Google and Nvidia, continues to solidify its position in the future market.

Today, the company announced that it is partnering with Getty Images, one of the world's largest paid stock image and editorial image resource libraries, to develop a new generative AI video model: Runway <> Getty Images Model (RGM).

Runway described the collaboration in a blog post:

"This new Runway <> Getty Images Model (RGM) will provide a base model that companies can use to build their own custom models for generating video content. Runway's enterprise clients will be able to fine-tune RGM using their proprietary datasets. This enables companies in all fields, including Hollywood studios, advertising, media, and broadcasting, to enhance their creative capabilities and provide personalized, enjoyable experiences for video creation that align with their brand style and unique audience."

The blog post also mentioned, "Runway and Getty Images will continue to push the boundaries of AI and video generation, making it easier than ever for businesses to produce professional, engaging, and brand-consistent content. RGM will be available for commercial use in the coming months."

Several notable reasons for this move:

• Getty Images' support adds new legitimacy to Runway ML's AI capabilities and provides new data sources for training its models. It remains to be seen whether Getty Images' photographers and contributors will be pleased that their work is being used to create potentially substitute AI products. Most of Getty's image contributors are independent and have licensing agreements with the company, but they are not employees. There have been previous reports of conflicts between Adobe Stock, a separate competitor stock image service, and its contributors over Adobe using their images to train its Firefly AI model.

• By explicitly targeting Hollywood, advertising, and media as the target industries for the new RGM model, Runway is clearly aiming to penetrate some of the world's largest visual media industries and become an integral part of the workflows in these areas.

• This collaboration comes at a time when Runway itself is facing copyright lawsuits for using others' works for training without permission or compensation. However, Getty seems to be less concerned that this lawsuit will undermine Runway's technology.

Runway's significant moves

This partnership follows Runway's major upgrades to its web-based video generative AI software application, Gen-2, including a new motion brush that allows users to add selected motion to different areas of static images, new camera movements (simulating the POV of a video camera, allowing users to pan and tilt around static images, adding cinematic motion effects), and improvements in the fidelity and realism of the final videos.

Regardless of the outcome of this collaboration, it is evident that Runway is becoming a leader in the generative video AI field, even as it faces fierce competition from emerging companies like Pika. Pika recently raised $55 million in funding and announced the availability of its 1.0 version of the video AI generator platform with limited scrollability.