A graduate from Harvard University, Kiwi Soumil Singh has produced a world-first AI that automates social media content with basic text prompts. The AI, named Unfaze has since received millions of dollars in funding from major investors.

Titled Unfaze.ai, Kiwi Harvard grad Soumil Singh has created a first of its kind for individuals, SMEs and influencers – an AI tool that can create an entire video based on text prompts.

Singh says that the programme was made with SMEs in mind and hopes to reduce barriers that they face when it comes to using social media platforms such as TikTok or YouTube to promote their products organically.

Videos require hours of production and design, but with Singh’s tool, SMEs will be able to reduce these hours and manpower and use AI to generate images and short-form videos that can include voiceovers all within minutes.

He adds that though the current technological state of the world has a number of AI tools, Unfaze is the first to allow users to generate images of their products with multiple backgrounds using generative AI models and then convert these images into the creation of short-form video content.

Already, the company has acquired multi-million dollar investments by US and NZ investment funds – including Y Combinator, the world’s top accelerator and the first investor for Airbnb and Dropbox.

While video creation tools from OpenAI and Google are not yet available, start-ups like Unfaze are moving rapidly to secure market share before global tech giants release their own business and individual-focused offerings.

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Unfaze comes at a time when market potential for the technology is significant, particularly within the fastest-growing social media platforms such as TikTok which has 1.1 billion monthly active users globally and is available in over 160 countries. The app’s audience is expected to grow by over 64% to surpass 1.8 billion users by the end of 2024.

Singh first left New Zealand seven years ago when he went to Boston to study applied mathematics and computer science at Harvard. During his time in the US, he realised the demand to create content is resource intensive and cost prohibitive in a world where everyone is wanting content.

“What we know about these social media and video platforms is that they rely heavily on high volumes of fresh content for users to maintain visibility and engagement,” he says.

“With traditional tools, you have to think of an idea, write a script, collate all the images and video snippets and then decide how to bring them together. Alternatively, now you could just upload your product image, tell AI your idea, press a button and have it generate one or multiple versions of the video and even automatically schedule and post them to your social media accounts.”

Now, Unfaze has raised $5.5 million and will be using the funds to further develop the technology and support the video creation software launch in July 2024 on their existing online platform.

Soon enough, Singh says they will be able to create a software that is able to make videos that is indistinguishable from manually created content.

“This is really the Holy Grail of video creation and with the speed at which AI is evolving, we expect to reach this point within a matter of months, not years.”