Runway

Runway is a developer of tools and platforms that enable artists, designers, and creators to generate unique and compelling content, ranging from visuals and animations to interactive experiences.

Runway was one of the co-creators of the initial Stable Diffusion image generation model in collaboration with the University of Munich and Stability AI.

Runway’s flagship product is “Gen-1,” a video-to-video generation model that transforms videos into different styles. Users can upload a video from their device and submit a text or image prompt as a style reference, which the tool uses to generate a new video by overlaying the style on the uploaded footage. Gen-1 is available via Runway’s web platform, and, as of April 2023, is an iOS application, too.

The company’s platform also offers a web-based video editor that incorporates Gen-1 and a range of other content creation and transformation tools based on its AI models. These include:

1) Text-to-image: Creates images from text prompts, offers a variety of settings to fine-tune the output

2) Image-to-image: Transforms images into different styles through text prompts

3) Frame Interpolation: Allows smooth transitions between images

4) Generative Audio: Adds dialogue and voice-overs to videos with text-to-speech, lip sync, and custom voices

5) Upscale Image: Increases the resolution of an image up to 4K

6) AI Training: Provides AI-powered tools and training for creating and customizing images and videos

7) Video Inpainting: Removes objects from video footage

8) Green Screen: Allows users to instantly remove video backgrounds and replace them with any desired images

9) Act-One: Allows users to capture facial expressions using smartphone cameras and replicate them on AI-generated video characters

In March 2023, Runway launched “Gen-2,” a text-to-video system that can generate entirely new video from simple text prompts or images, which it claims is one of the first commercially available text-to-video models. In November 2023, the company released an advanced upgrade of Gen-2, focusing on improving the realness and sharpness of AI-generated videos. In June 2024, Gen-3 Alpha was launched followed by Gen-3 Alpha Turbo in July 2024.

Runway’s video and image generation tools are built on diffusion models.

In February 2024, the company launched Runway Studios, an entertainment division that serves as a production partner for corporate clients. In September 2024, Runway announced an API that allows developers and organizations to integrate its GenAI models into third-party platforms, apps, and services.

Key customers and partnerships

Runway solutions are used by individual content creators and also enterprise users, including CBS, New Balance, Harbor Picture Company, and Publicis. As of December 2022, the firm's solutions have been used by 10 million users, including the visual effects and video editing teams of popular television programs such as CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Hollywood films like Everything Everywhere All at Once. Runway also has a partnership with major Hollywood studio Lionsgate to train a custom video model on Lionsgate's film catalog.