Ditch Your AI Loyalty and Pick an AI Image or Video Model Based on Its ‘Personality’

AI image and video models are not human, but they have distinct “personalities,” depending on the creators who use them. This new phenomenon is a reaction to the rapid expansion of the generative AI sector, highlighting how creators navigate a dizzying number of choices.

Generative AI has seen massive growth in recent years, but it wasn’t until 2025 that image, video, and other generative media models took center stage. Just as chatbots redefined text generation, these creative AI models are transforming content creation and creative work, for better or worse.

Google and OpenAI have long been leaders in the AI ​​race. Before this year, they were known for their Gemini And ChatGPT chatbots. NOW, Veo 3, nano banana And Sora2 have put the tech titans at the head of the pack among creative AI models. New innovations in AI Adobe and creative AI start-ups, such as Runway, Pika and Luma, have also strengthened this sector this year.

For AI companies to remain competitive in a crowded market, generative media has evolved from a niche offering to a compelling necessity. Companies are focusing on upgrading their AI models to stay ahead and attract new users. Enhancements typically involve creating detailed content, at a higher resolution and, for video, including audio and extending the length of clips. The hallucinations, or errors, disappear with each update of the model, which is part of the reason why it becomes increasingly difficult. to spot AI-generated content.

All in all, there have never been more options for creating AI content. When creators need to choose a template to use, it’s no longer a question of which template will produce usable results. Now it’s a question of which one will be best suited to a specific project or task. As a result, each AI model now has its own personality.

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Humanize AI tools with personalities

Creators use the term “personalities” colloquially: AI models are not human and therefore have no personality. The term actually refers to a model’s ability to handle specific tasks and their reputation for excellence in particular areas. It also refers to the individual style of each model at the base level.

“Creators are humanizing these tools. They call them the ‘creative tool’ or the ‘detailed tool’ because they build real relationships with their AI. It’s no longer just software,” said Tiffany Kyazze (@TechTiff), founder of the AI ​​Flow Club, which teaches people how to use AI tools. “These personalities help creators build confidence with their tools, overcome creative blocks, and find comfort in their work.”

For creators who use AI tools every day, selecting the right template has become an integral part of the creative process, just like choosing the right camera lens or brush.

“Each model interprets the world differently: some are more cinematic, others are more surreal or dreamlike,” said Dave Clark, director and creative director at Promise AI, an AI production studio. “The key for me is knowing how to take my creative vision and translate it into visual language prompts that allow me to achieve the artistry I desire.”

There is a learning curve to discover the personality of each model. Sometimes it’s not even determined by the company creating it; this varies between images and videos, and between different generations of the same model. This is partly due to the way the models are created.

“Part of what we learn when we train our own models is at the end of the training process. You can show the model a particular style, and the model will overfit to some extent, or adapt to that style and essentially gain personality,” said Alexandru Costin, vice president of generative AI at Adobe. “So we see some very opinionated models doing that. Others are trying to be more neutral.”

The training data used to create and refine a model also plays a role in developing the basic style of each model. For example, Adobe’s Firefly models were trained using licensed Adobe Stock images, which is why Firefly-generated content often has a stock-like appearance. (Costin said the company is working to resolve this issue to create more realistic results.)

What is the personality of each AI image and video model?

I spent a lot of time with these AI models, and the creators I spoke with had similar ideas and experiences to mine when it came to each model’s personality. Here are some of the most popular model personalities.

• Google’s Veo 3 (video): cinematic, natural movement, high quality
• Flow (video): Excels in realism, especially for human features
• Track (video): Complete creative studio, ideal for those who need hands-on control
• Sora (video): Good for ideation and exploration, memes for Sora social media app
• Halfway (image and video): the most creative models, ideal for artistic or stylized work
• Google’s nano banana (image): Great for character consistency, good for e-commerce and social media work
• Adobe Firefly 5 image template (image): Commercially safe results for professional work

You will also notice distinct personalities among chatbots. ChatGPT is known for its affectionate and friendly tone (sometimes so it’s boring), while Claude is a must-have search tool and Gemini is a convenient choice for Google users. However, the different personalities of the AI ​​image and video models – styles, aesthetics, innate preferences, etc. – are much more immediately obvious.

Although you can create almost any scene with AI image and video generators, they are not the “all-purpose machines” that chatbots can be. Creators who use AI creation tools for professional purposes often need to leave specific content with them. Understanding the personality of each model is crucial.

Benefits of using multiple templates

The idea of ​​switching between AI models and programs may not seem appealing at first, but there are benefits to expanding your AI roster.

Clark and his team used various AI models for a new short film he made called My Friend, Zeph. This method of hybrid filmmaking, as Clark calls it, involved the team using AI tools such as Adobe Firefly, Google’s Veo 3.1 and Luma’s Ray3, as well as Adobe’s traditional software including Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

“By mixing multiple models, you get creative range and precision, almost like having a team of specialists,” Clark said. “We can visualize the world of a story much earlier, iterate more quickly, and make smarter creative choices before we even step on set.”

Some creators are loyal to specific AI tools and platforms and might be hesitant to branch out. This idea of ​​AI fidelity is slightly misguided, Kyazze said. Creators who achieve the best results are “tool-agnostic and goal-driven.”

“The real benefit of multi-model workflows is that you’re not forcing one tool to do everything. You’re leveraging the real strengths of each model. It’s not only more efficient. It allows you to achieve better results because you’re using the right tool for each specific part of your project,” Kyazze said.

Evolving personalities

The concept of AI models having personalities is relatively new, thanks to the recent increase in the number of models available to creators. But these are not static labels; A model’s reputation and personality may change over time. As new updates roll out, models once known for being terrible at a specific task could be improved.

This trend is another sign that AI is playing a growing role in creative work. This isn’t true for all creators, as many are opposed to AI and don’t want to use it. But for those who are interested, there have never been so many choices.

Creating distinct personalities for AI image and video models is a way, or solution, to help them choose the right tool to get better results, without wasting too much time and money on AI tools that aren’t the best fit.

Even though generative media models have improved a lot, they are still not perfect. Adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of each model makes for smart workflow design, Kyazze said. It’s also important to remember that AI models are just tools, Clark said.

“The human expression of the artist – our personality and our creative point of view – is what truly determines the results,” Clark said. “It’s not about replacing the traditional process; it’s about expanding what’s possible and bringing imagination closer to the screen than ever before.”

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit in April against OpenAI, alleging that it violated Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)