In November 2023, Pika Labs opened to the public and immediately went viral. Their AI video tool let anyone create and edit videos using just text prompts.

No video editing skills required. Just describe what you want, and Pika makes it happen.

What Pika Could Do

Text-to-video: Type a description, get a 3-second video clip Image-to-video: Upload an image, animate it Video editing: Modify existing videos with text commands Style transfer: Change video aesthetics with prompts

The interface was simple: type what you want, wait a few seconds, see the result.

Why It Went Viral

Several factors made Pika explode on social media:

Quality: Better than most consumer tools, approaching professional grade Accessibility: No technical knowledge needed Speed: Results in seconds, not hours Creativity: Enabled ideas previously impossible to execute Shareability: Perfect for social media

Within weeks, thousands of creators were using Pika daily.

The Use Cases

Creators found innovative applications:

Content creators: B-roll for YouTube videos Marketers: Quick product demos and ads Artists: Experimental video art Educators: Visualizations for lessons Meme makers: Viral content creation

Where Are They Now?

Pika Labs continues iterating, though competition from Runway Gen-3 and eventually Sora has intensified. The company raised significant funding and is building toward longer, higher-quality video generation.

November 2023 was when AI video generation became accessible to everyday creators, not just professionals with expensive tools.