A mystery AI video model called HappyHorse-1.0 showed up on the Artificial Analysis benchmark last week with no name attached. Within days it was #1 in text-to-video AND image-to-video, beating Seedance 2.0, Runway Gen-4.5, and every other model on the board. Then Alibaba raised their hand. Turns out it was built by their ATH AI unit, led by Zhang Di, the former VP of Kuaishou who built Kling AI's technology. The guy who built the previous champion just built the new one. For a different company. The numbers aren't close. 1333 Elo in text-to-video (60 points ahead of #2). 1392 Elo in image-to-video (37 points clear). And here's the part that matters: it generates video and audio together in a single pass. Not two separate models stitched together. One transformer, 40 layers, everything at once. They've confirmed it's going open source. API access starts April 30. If that open source release actually delivers benchmark-level quality, the math changes for everyone paying monthly for Runway or Kling. The best model in the world, free to download and run locally. Worth paying attention to. What do you think this means for the paid tools? Does free + best quality kill the subscription model? Drop your take below. Founding Members are getting a full technical breakdown of HappyHorse's architecture and what it means for your workflows this week.

I don't normally post two days in a row, but this news was so big I had to tell you about it. The Writers Guild of America reached a tentative 4-year deal April 5. Buried inside it: Studios can't train AI on writers' scripts without consent or compensation, full stop. Negotiating committee co-chair John August confirmed it was the TOP negotiating priority. Not a side amendment, not a footnote, the actual top. It's the first major creative union contract since 2023 to put AI training rules into the contract language itself. SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, and the DGA are all reading it this weekend trying to figure out what they can negotiate next. Now here's the part nobody's writing about. This deal protects a contracting industry, not a growing one. It helps the writers inside the door. It does nothing for the writers who never got through it. Both things can be true. **Discussion question:** If you use AI tools in your writing process, do these new rules change anything for you? Or do they just lock in what you were already doing? --- Quick note from me. I know my posting schedule has been a bit catawampus lately. But because there is SO MUCH NEWS coming out of this space every single day, I'm shifting AIography to a twice-a-week cadence going forward: Mondays AND Thursdays. In all due modesty, there's a bagful of sparkling gems in every issue. I personally curate every story I believe will be the most helpful to you and your career. Not the hype cycle nonsense, not the fluff. The actual stuff that matters when you're trying to make something. So if you want to THRIVE in this new world order we're entering, CLICK THIS LINK AND SUBSCRIBE. You'll be glad you did. --- One more thing, and this one's important. There are literally only a few more spots left in the AIography Founding Members group. Believe me, you're going to KICK yourself if you don't grab it at this price. In the coming weeks and months, Founding Members will get all kinds of special content that will supercharge their future. I promise you'll be rewarded educationally AND financially as you step into the future fully prepared with the tools and skills that will be required of you.

Google dropped a quiet bombshell this week. Veo 3.1, their AI video generation model, is now free for anyone with a Google account. Ten video generations per month, no subscription needed. You can open Google Vids right now, type a prompt, and get a high-quality AI video clip back. Free. They also added: - AI avatars you can direct (change outfits, pose them in scenes, keep voice consistent) - Custom music generation via Lyria 3 (30-second clips up to 3-minute tracks) - One-click publish to YouTube For indie creators testing ideas, prototyping a pitch, or mocking up a concept before committing real budget, this is significant. Ten free generations won't cover a full production, but they'll cover the "what if I tried..." phase that every good project starts with. If you're on a Google AI Ultra plan, you get 1,000 generations per month. That's a different conversation entirely. What's your move? Have you tried Google Vids yet? If you have, what's your honest take on the output quality compared to Runway or Kling? Drop your experience below.

OpenAI abruptly discontinued its Sora video generation app and API on March 24, citing unsustainable compute costs and a strategic pivot to robotics. The $1B Disney partnership collapsed — no money changed hands. Sam Altman told staff the company is winding down ALL video products. ChatGPT will no longer support video functions. This is the single biggest AI video story of 2026. It validates Chinese competitors (Kling, Seedance, Hailuo) as the new leaders. ByteDance rolled out Seedance 2.0 globally via CapCut the SAME WEEK. The power has permanently shifted.

We saw from Chinese State Media yesterday. Here’s from Higgsfield today: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWHPG1BiF8L/?igsh=MXV1M3V0NHdtN24zYw==