Amazon has announced the launch of an AI tool for quickly creating video ads. The Video Generator, unveiled at the Accelerate conference, allows a single product image to be transformed into an engaging video that highlights the product's features.

Although the tool's functionality is currently limited, TechCrunch reports that it already enables users to create custom videos without additional costs. "Videos created with the Video Generator leverage Amazon’s unique retail insights and showcase the product in a way that makes it most appealing to customers," the company’s blog states.

The video generator is currently in beta testing and available to a limited number of advertisers in the U.S. Amazon Ads Vice President Jay Richman said the tool will be refined before a wider release.

Alongside the Video Generator, Amazon also introduced the Live Image feature, which creates short animated GIFs from static images. This feature, also in beta testing, is part of Amazon's Image Generator toolkit for AI-driven image creation.

It is worth noting that Amazon’s entry into the generative video market comes amid rapid advancements in this technology by other companies. Startups like Runway and Luma have recently launched video generation APIs, Google has started integrating its Veo model into YouTube Shorts, Adobe promises to add video generation capabilities to its Creative Suite by the end of the year, and OpenAI plans to release its Sora technology to the public by fall.

Amazon has yet to provide examples of videos created with the new tools or details on the maximum length and resolution of the generated videos.