Former Googlers AI startup OpenArt now creates ‘brainrot’ videos in just one click | TechCrunch

AI-generated “brainrot” videos are popping up all over the internet and getting a lot of attention. Currently gaining traction among younger users, these clips feature wild characters, like a shark wearing sneakers and a ballerina with a cappuccino for a head.

One startup driving this trend is OpenArt, founded by two former Google employees in 2022. It touts around 3 million monthly active users.

The company recently launched a new “one-click story” feature in open beta, which allows users to input a single sentence, a script, or even a song and turn it into a one-minute video with a story arc. This can include anything from a light-hearted story for TikTok to more serious content like explainer videos or music videos for YouTube. OpenArt even envisions this feature being used for advertising.

With One-Click Story, there are three templates to choose from: Character Vlog, Music Video, or Explainer. For a character vlog, users start by uploading an image of their character and entering a prompt. If a song is uploaded, the software understands the lyrics and creates an animation that aligns with the song’s themes, like illustrating flowers blooming in a garden.

Users can edit individual clips by revisiting the editor’s storyboard mode and tweaking prompts for a more refined result. The platform aggregates over 50 AI models, allowing users to choose their preferred tools, such as DALLE-3, GPT, Imagen, Flux Kontext, and Stable Diffusion.

The goal of the new feature is to further lower the barrier for becoming an AI creator, a medium that remains immensely popular despite ongoing controversy. 

While these tools can be beneficial—like using video generators to quickly produce content with original characters and narratives—there are numerous ethical issues to address. These include imitating other artists’ styles, intellectual property rights, and the dangers of misuse and creating misinformation.

During testing, we noticed that the Character Vlog option may tread into a grey legal area due to the types of characters it offers—such as Pikachu, SpongeBob, and Super Mario—which could pose risks of intellectual property (IP) infringement. In June, Disney and Universal sued AI firm Midjourney over AI-generated images.

Users should be aware that if their videos are found to infringe another’s copyright, the video may be taken off social media platforms, and if the user is found to have contributed to the infringement, they can potentially be held liable under copyright law, which can result in legal action from the copyright holder.

“We try to be cautious around the IP infringement,” Coco Mao, co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch. “When you upload some IP characters, by default, the models we use will reject them, and it’s not able to produce the IP character, but sometimes it slips.”

Mao added that the company is open to talking to major IP holders to get licensing for characters. 

One aspect that OpenArt believes sets it apart is its ability to maintain character consistency. It argues that, unlike the average video model that often relies on simple, standalone clips that users have to piece together into a cohesive story, OpenArt aims to ensure that both the visuals and the narrative remain consistent.

“A problem that a lot of AI couldn’t really handle well is to have the character consistent in the same video…If you don’t have the same character, then it’s hard to get immersed in the story,” Mao said. 

Looking ahead, the company plans to iterate on the one-click feature by allowing users to create videos featuring conversations between two different characters. Another plan on the roadmap is developing a mobile app.   

OpenArt operates on a credit-based system. It offers four plans, with the most basic costing $14 per month for 4,000 credits, which include up to 4 One-Click stories, 40 videos, 4,000 images, and 4 characters. The advanced plan costs $30 per month for 12,000 credits and includes up to 12 One-Click stories. The Infinite plan is priced at $56 per month for 24,000 credits, and there is also a team plan available for $35/month per member.

OpenArt has raised $5 million in funding to date from Basis Set Ventures and DCM Ventures, and it boasts a positive cash flow. Additionally, the company said it’s on track to achieve an annual revenue rate of over $20 million.