Tech Desk 
May 15, 2025
An undated image. — TikTok
With artificial intelligence (AI) getting incorporated into any technology you come across nowadays, TikTok has made a bold move by launching a new feature called AI Alive, enabling users to animate their static and stale photos into animated video clips using simple text prompts.
Rolled out very recently, the feature appears to be serving a great purpose: letting users enhance their content in a creative and interactive way.
AI Alive can be accessed from TikTok’s Story Camera and is powered by ByteDance’s proprietary image-to-video model. To use it, users have to simply select an image from the Story Album, then tap the new AI Alive icon next to the existing assortment of tools.
Tapping the icon invokes a prompt box allowing users to describe the type of animation they wish to apply to their image(s). Once users give the feature text-based instructions as to what they want it to do, the system automatically produces a short, animated video.
The Chinese short video platform claims that TikTok's AI Alive feature can animate subtle changes such as facial expressions, hand movements, or shifting weather in landscapes.
For example, it can transform a sunset into a cinematic video with changing colours and moving clouds, while group selfies can embrace enhanced touchups with natural gestures for a more dynamic look.
To instil transparency in the feature, each AI-generated clip will reportedly carry C2PA metadata, which is a standard for labelling synthetic content. TikTok detailed that all outputs are reviewed through a multilayered system to avoid misuse.
