Meta’s new AI video tool can put you in a desert (or at least try to)

Meta is launching new video editing tools that will let you transform videos using AI. The tool, which is only free for a “limited time,” gives you more than 50 preset prompts you can use to edit your video, allowing you to set a theme, change the background, and tweak what you’re wearing.

The presets are presented similarly to how you would choose a filter on Instagram. You can have Meta AI restyle your clip as a video game or anime, make it appear as if it was taken in the desert, dress you in an AI-generated tuxedo, and more. The tool only works for the first 10 seconds of your video, though. It’s rolling out now in the US and “more than a dozen” countries in the Meta AI app, the Meta.AI website, and the Edits app.

I tried the feature out for myself, and my results certainly didn’t look as good as the examples posted on Meta’s website. I uploaded a video of my parents’ dogs digging a hole in the backyard, and asked Meta AI to make it look like they were in the desert. Meta AI turned the ground orange, put some (purple?) cacti in the foreground and background, and for some reason gave my dogs a shimmery glow. Then, when I asked it to restyle a video of myself as an anime character, Meta AI gave me fluorescent pink eyes and lips.

You can share the edited videos directly to Facebook and Instagram, or put them in the Discover feed in the Meta AI app. Though you can’t use custom prompts right now, Meta says “you’ll be able to edit videos alongside Meta AI with your own text prompts” later this year.