- OmniHuman 2.0: ByteDance’s image-plus-audio avatar model, out today through BytePlus. API only, and not available in the US, hence my region lock. Clips up to 5 minutes, about 40% cheaper, 720p. A little south of Seedance 2.5; handy for patchwork lines.
- The world model: shown Sunday at Douyin’s Wonderful Night gala. No name, no date, phone footage of an LED wall. Mouse-and-keyboard control, prompt an object in and the character uses it, and the King of Comedy demo: a dozen camera positions from one drawn path, with Stephen Chow’s permission. Bloomberg says ByteDance is building a real-time world model for Pico and Douyin.
- Pico Space Pro: ByteDance’s Vision Pro rival, delayed to Q4 2026. No official price; leaks say roughly $2,400–2,600 vs the Vision Pro’s $3,699.
- Krea 3 (beta today, final release next week): editor first, generator second. Most 2K edits in under 8 seconds. Draw a box, say what changes, the rest stays put. Tested: GPT Image grain removal, Flamethrower Girl’s outfit change (no lecture), Business Shark, and a first/last-frame diner shot.
- Sora is coming back? The Information (Oct 12): OpenAI is in talks to give a stealth startup deep access to the shelved Sora model for equity. Co-founders Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bill Peebles and Sujay Jaswa (ex-Dropbox CFO). Aimed at film studios. Nothing signed, no timeline.
- The mic: an OpenAI engineer was arrested Oct 9 for allegedly hiding a recorder in an executive conference room. Per the complaint, the how-to prompts came from ChatGPT. Allegedly.
- World Gacha: a free browser tool by Sharp (@sharp_maker) that generates fictional towns from random numbers and an erosion sim, with street level and 3D export. Free for commercial use; English toggle added after I recorded.
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