In mid-June, the artificial intelligence (AI) developer Luma introduced its Dream Machine, a tool that swiftly produces high-quality, realistic videos from text and image inputs.
Since its release, users across the internet have been flooding social platforms with their own creations generated by Luma. One trend, in particular, is users turning stagnant viral memes into extended mini-video clips.
Memes come alive
One example can be seen of a little girl staring into a camera with a smirk while a house burns in the background. Through Luma, the image has been extended to show the girl turning her head and a hurried scene of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze in the background.
Luma AI has released the Dream Machine, a model on par with Sora.
— Aadit Sheth (@aaditsh) June 15, 2024
The best part? It's free.
Here are 10 wild meme examples:pic.twitter.com/su1yjFBx8b
Most of the legacy memes that circulate on the internet have been animated by Luma since its emergence.
As with most major internet trends, the memes that have come to life through AI generation have reached the crypto space.
Crypto memes move
One user on the social media platform X used Luma AI to bring to life a still photograph of Tron co-founder Justin Sun. While not a meme, it follows another Luma AI trend of bringing to life still photographs and creating a small narrative around them.
In the case of Sun, he is seen moving around and giggling.
今天LUMA的AI火了，狗总拿孙宇晨经典照片生成视频试试，最后这是什么鬼 pic.twitter.com/XzPGmaC3jJ
— Crypto Doggy 叫我狗总 (@CryptoDoggyCN) June 13, 2024
Related: Nigerian blockchain leader advocates AI to save African languages
Another user said they used multiple AI video-generating engines, including Luma’s Dream Machine, to animate a photo of Bitcoin (BTC) in what appears to be a vault-like environment.
Poisoned - #short #video #reel made with various #ai and #graphics tools - #AIArtwork #aiartcommunity #illustrations #aiartgallery #midjourney #tracejourney #leonardoai #luma #dreammachine #bitcoin #crypto #Poison pic.twitter.com/iVNccteohV
— Massimo Morselli (@JadeFalcon27) July 8, 2024
The community behind Pepe the Frog has also jumped on the bandwagon.
The template of a popular meme of the characters Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy pointing into the distance was animated using AI to then pan over to reveal a smug looking Pepe drinking a glass of wine in a suit.
testing new AI features #memecoin #pepe #crypto #meme #pepecoin #PEPECOMMUNITY pic.twitter.com/5oUPXSNJK9
— Movich (@movich_art) July 4, 2024
One community even created its own AI video image generator that it claims is specifically for creating short, custom clips based on text and image prompts but is “tailored to crypto and memes.”
1/ Introducing the Alpha Visuals video generator!
— Alphakek.AI (@alphakek_ai) July 7, 2024
It's our new #AI video model for creating short, custom clips from text instructions and images, tailored to crypto and memes.
Prompt: @OKAYEG_VIP wizard, fantasy setting, digital art
Currently only available in our Telegram ⤵️… pic.twitter.com/tWmBpBr87r
While some are still concerned about what these models mean for the future of digital creators, particularly animators, the internet waits for no one and the storm of animated memes is already raging.
Cointelegraph reached out to Luma for additional comments on its Dream Machine AI model.