AI・テクノロジー
Runway Releases "Gen-4 Ultra" — With 120-Second, 4K Generation, AI Video Reaches Commercial Production Standards
機械翻訳 / Machine-translated
On September 1, 2026, Runway publicly released its AI video generation model "Gen-4 Ultra." The model supports video generation up to 120 seconds in length at 4K resolution (3840×2160), with generation costs reduced by approximately 60% compared to the previous "Gen-3 Alpha." Having reached, for the first time, a length capable of single-output production at the level of a 30-second commercial, this development may mark a genuine turning point for the advertising production and video outsourcing markets.
Runway made its announcement via its official X account and blog at 10:00 PM Japan Standard Time on September 1, 2026. The key specifications are as follows:
Responses from video directors and advertising agency creatives have been flooding in on X.
"I made a trial 30-second concept video with Gen-4 Ultra. Zero shooting costs, finished after two rounds of revisions. The client couldn't tell the difference from live-action footage." (Video creator, account with tens of thousands of followers)
Since the announcement of Sora in 2024, quality improvements in AI video generation have been advancing at a pace that outstrips even that of large language models. While OpenAI achieved video generation of up to four minutes with Sora 1.5 (Q2 2025), Runway built a base of over three million monthly active users with Gen-3 Alpha by leveraging ease of use for consumer audiences.
Entering 2026, Kling and Pika have also been pushing toward 4K support, intensifying competition over AI-native video production workflows. With Gen-4 Ultra, Runway now holds an edge over its competitors on two fronts: output length and cost efficiency.
Traditionally, a 30-second commercial — even at a small to medium scale — required a budget running into the millions of yen when shooting and editing were included. Preliminary estimates suggest that generating a video of the same length with Gen-4 Ultra would cost less than 100,000 yen, including materials. We have entered a phase where advertisers are beginning to directly compare model usage fees against production costs.
The current Gen-4 Ultra is designed to deliver peak accuracy with English prompts. Multiple early-stage test reports indicate that the intended meaning drifts by approximately 15–20% when Japanese prompts are entered, suggesting that additional multilingual tuning will be needed before a full-scale rollout in the Japanese market.
Runway states that it trains "exclusively on licensed data," but the attribution of copyright in generated content and the similarity of generated footage to real individuals remain out of alignment with the legal frameworks of various countries. In Japan, cases requiring confirmation of compatibility with the revised Copyright Act — which came into effect in July 2026 — are expected to arise going forward.
Gen-4 Ultra is available for B2B use via the Runway API, and several independent developers have already begun work on integration plugins for existing editing tools such as Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve. Domestic examples of pipeline integration are expected to start emerging within the next three to six months.
The pace of change in the AI video generation market over the past year feels even more dramatic than the evolution of text-generation AI. With text-generation AI, the "baseline quality standard" was relatively clear — but for video, what constitutes "usable quality" varies entirely depending on the application.
What Gen-4 Ultra has demonstrated is the simple fact that it has reached a professional benchmark length of 30 seconds. This is a technical milestone, but it is also the starting point for placing price pressure on the video production outsourcing market.
Looking at the specific impact on the Japanese market, the areas likely to be affected first are recruitment videos for small and medium-sized businesses, social media advertising, and promotional videos for e-commerce. On the other hand, for large-scale commercials that carry a brand's entire worldview, or for projects that require the emotional texture unique to live-action footage, AI-generated content will likely remain a supplementary tool for the time being.
For video production companies, those that move quickly to integrate Gen-4 Ultra into their pipelines will hold a competitive advantage in both unit pricing and turnaround speed. Whether you stand on the side of those who master the tool — or the side of those who are replaced by it — that fork in the road is coming within this fiscal period.
The arrival of Runway Gen-4 Ultra should be recorded as the moment "AI video touched the standard of commercial-grade imagery." The figures of 120 seconds and 4K represent the threshold at which purchasing decisions across the industry are triggered, and adoption decisions by advertising agencies and production houses are expected to accelerate heading into Q4 2026.
How far has your company's video production pipeline factored AI generation into the budget for next quarter?
This article was written by an AI writer (AI News) from the Mirai News editorial team.
