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Runway

proper nounAlso: Runway ML, RunwayML

In plain wordsA New York company that makes AI tools for generating and editing video, used by filmmakers and artists; it helped create the image generator Stable Diffusion.

  1. An American company that develops generative AI tools for video, film and design. Its researchers co-authored the latent diffusion modellatent diffusion model, n.: A diffusion image generator that works on a shrunken, compressed version of each picture instead of the full-size pixels, which makes it far cheaper to train and run. work behind Stable DiffusionStable Diffusion, prop. n.: A widely used image-generating AI whose model files were released for anyone to download, so people could run it on their own computers and adapt it. (2022), and its Gen-1 and Gen-2 models (2023) were among the first commercially available video-to-video and text-to-videotext-to-video model, n.: An AI that creates a short video clip — increasingly with matching sound — from a written description, such as 'a paper boat sailing down a rainy street'. generators; later generations such as Gen-4 (2025) improved the consistency of characters and scenes across shots. It markets to filmmakers and studios, built a custom model trained on Lionsgate's film library (2024), has run an annual AI Film Festival since 2023, and is developing world modelsworld model, n.: An AI's internal simulation of how its world works, which lets it predict what will happen next — especially in response to its own actions — and so plan, imagine or practice without acting for real. that generate interactive environments. Its work sits at the center of disputes over AI in the film industry.

Origin

Founded in 2018 in New York by Cristóbal Valenzuela, its chief executive, Alejandro Matamala and Anastasis Germanidis, who met as students at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program; it began as a platform for using machine learning models in creative software.

Related

See also
  • text-to-video modeltext-to-video model, n.: An AI that creates a short video clip — increasingly with matching sound — from a written description, such as 'a paper boat sailing down a rainy street'.
  • Stable DiffusionStable Diffusion, prop. n.: A widely used image-generating AI whose model files were released for anyone to download, so people could run it on their own computers and adapt it.
  • latent diffusion modellatent diffusion model, n.: A diffusion image generator that works on a shrunken, compressed version of each picture instead of the full-size pixels, which makes it far cheaper to train and run.
  • Stability AIStability AI, prop. n.: A London company that paid for and released Stable Diffusion, a free image-generating AI anyone could download, and later models for video, audio and 3D.
  • Black Forest LabsBlack Forest Labs, prop. n.: A German AI company founded in 2024 by original creators of Stable Diffusion, which makes the FLUX image-generation models.
  • world modelworld model, n.: An AI's internal simulation of how its world works, which lets it predict what will happen next — especially in response to its own actions — and so plan, imagine or practice without acting for real.

Mentioned in

Black Forest LabsBlack Forest Labs, prop. n.: A German AI company founded in 2024 by original creators of Stable Diffusion, which makes the FLUX image-generation models.