If 2023 was the year of the Chatbot, 2024 was unequivocally the year of **Video**. In just 12 months, we went from Will Smith eating spaghetti nightmares to photorealistic, 1080p clips that were indistinguishable from reality. Here is the definitive timeline of how the video revolution happened. ## 📅 February: The Sora Shock On February 15, 2024, OpenAI dropped **Sora**. It wasn't a product launch; it was a cultural event. The Tokyo Walk and Gold Rush demos showed temporal consistency we didn't think possible. * **Impact:** It effectively froze the market. Everyone else looked obsolete overnight. * **The Catch:** It didn't actually release to the public for months. ## 📅 June: The Summer of Sims While the world waited for Sora, two competitors swooped in to fill the void. ### 1. Luma Dream Machine Luma AI, previously known for 3D NeRFs, released **Dream Machine**. fast, free-to-try, and shockingly good at physics. It became the meme-engine of the summer. ### 2. Runway Gen-3 Alpha Runway reclaimed its throne. Gen-3 brought photorealism that rivaled Sora, with granular control tools that filmmakers actually needed. ## 📅 August: The Rise of China (Kling & Hailuo) The second half of 2024 saw a shift in power. **Kling AI** (by Kuaishou) released globally. * **Why it won:** It could generate 5-second and 10-second clips with complex human motion better than US models. * **MiniMax Hailuo:** Shortly after, MiniMax released Hailuo, which became the new standard for vibes and aesthetic consistency. ## 🏆 2024 Winners | Category | Winner | Why? | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | **Best Quality** | **Runway Gen-3** | Its texture fidelity was unmatched. | | **Best Motion** | **Kling AI** | Handles complex actions (eating, running) without breaking. | | **Most Accessible** | **Luma Dream Machine** | The Midjourney of Video - easy for everyone. | | **The Ghost** | **Sora** | The best model nobody could use. | ## MangoMind's Take 2024 proved that video generation is a compute-heavy arms race. We integrated **Runway** and **Kling** into MangoMind early, giving our users access to these tools while the rest of the world was stuck on waitlists. 2025 promises to bring audio-sync and longer durations, but 2024 will always be the year video AI grew up.