Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Shengshu AI on Tuesday rolled out Vidu Q2, a new video-generation model aimed at challenging OpenAI’s Sora, intensifying the global race to create realistic, controllable AI-generated videos.
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The model allows creators to produce expressive and consistent videos using up to seven reference images to define faces, gestures, scenes or props. ShengShu said the “Vidu Q2 Reference-to-Video” feature can merge multiple unrelated elements – such as distinct characters, objects and backgrounds – into a single coherent clip, improving realism, cinematic motion and prompt comprehension.
“Vidu Q2 ‘Reference-to-Video’ marks a new chapter in AI video creation,” said Luo Yihang, CEO of Shengshu Technology. A former head of AI solutions and product lines at ByteDance’s cloud unit Volcano Engine, Luo said the model “goes beyond basic video creation; it’s about teaching AI to act and tell stories alongside creators”.
The Vidu Q2, along with the model’s application programming interface for enterprises, is available globally through Shengshu’s platform. It supports reference-to-video, image-to-video and text-to-video generation, producing clips of up to eight seconds in various aspect ratios, and also features synchronised dialogue and sound effects.
Membership tiers range from free access to a flagship plan costing up to 600 yuan (US$84) a month, which offers faster output and more generation capacity.
Founded in March 2023, the Beijing-based company focuses on multimodal AI models through its Vidu video platform, which includes the previously released Vidu 1.5, Vidu 2.0 and Vidu Q1 versions.
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