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I used Google Veo to bring my selfies and photos to life - and things got hilariously weird

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Tiernan Ray / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

Google this week made available the latest iteration of its Veo video-generation tool to users of its Gemini artificial intelligence program who have a "Pro" or "Ultra" account.

Also: I used Google's Flow AI to create my own videos with sound and dialogue - Here's how it went

Veo has been available in preview for some time now. What's new with the latest implementation is the ability to begin your video by uploading a still image to serve as the initial frame. (ZDNET's Prakhar Khanna has reported his experience using the capability as a built-in feature of his Honor 400 phone, versus using it through the website as I did.)

How to use Veo to generate videos from photos

You give the system a prompt, press enter, and Veo creates an eight-second video using your uploaded photo as a reference point from which to build the first frame of video. Veo adds sound, including music, footsteps, and other incidentals.

Videos take several minutes at a time to develop.

Also: This interactive AI video generator feels like walking into a video game - how to try it

In my testing so far, I find Veo's implementation both fascinating and a bit creepy.

My results with Veo's photo-to-video feature

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