[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong] xAI has publicly released its AI model for generating video from images, Grok Imagine Video 1.5.

On June 18 local time, online media outlet Gigazine reported that xAI has begun official availability of the model through its Imagine API.

With this release, the previous preview version, Grok Imagine 1.5 Preview, has been discontinued. xAI previously released the model in preview form in June. With the shift to the official version, API users will use Grok Imagine Video 1.5 rather than the preview.

The key to this update is that a high-speed model was introduced separately along with the official API release. In Grok for the web and iOS and Android, users can use Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Fast. xAI said the model generates video at almost twice the speed of the previous model.

xAI also provided speed figures. Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Fast can generate a 6-second, 720p video in about 25 seconds. The previous model took more than 40 seconds to produce a video under the same conditions. The move to apply different model configurations for the public API and the user app is read as an effort to pair an expansion of the official service with an improvement in perceived performance.

On performance, xAI introduced Grok Imagine Video 1.5 as ranking first and second in the world in multiple AI benchmarks. The focus of this announcement, however, was placed on expanding the scope of actual distribution rather than benchmark results. By ending the preview stage and opening the API to the public, it effectively set up an environment in which developers and service operators can attach the model directly.

Moves to expand the creative tools ecosystem also continued. Heavy Pulp, a creative experimentation platform for visual effects artists, collaborated with xAI to release a video produced with Grok Imagine Video 1.5 Fast. xAI presented this as a real-world use case for the high-speed model.

Follow-on features were also previewed. xAI said it plans to roll out features over the next few days to improve creative workflows. The new features consist of Projects, displayed on the left sidebar, Multi-agent, which can run multiple agents in parallel within a single project, and Search, a library search function.

xAI's update is closer to refining the usage environment than simply swapping out a model. It broadened external use through general API availability and reduced generation waiting time in the app with the Fast model. It also outlined a direction of refining overall creative work by adding project management and search functions. Key points to watch are whether these functions are rolled out sequentially within days, and whether the high-speed model is expanded to other usage environments beyond web and mobile.

Grok Imagine Video 1.5 is here Our new image-to-video model with sharper realism, better physics and faster generations https://t.co/zGhs9czkC5 pic.twitter.com/9X4YicpMH8