Kling 4! Gemini 4! ElevenLabs v4! Ideogram 4.5! Everything Goes Four!
Four is your lucky number today. Kling 4 is here — kinda. But, I ran it through the usual tests: text-to-video, image-to-video, Omni with Flamethrower Girl, a noir scene in Malloy's office, and my keyframes-plus-Omni trick. Then Google wakes up with Gemini 4 Argon (announced, not released — return of the King? We'll see), HeyGen drops a video model that starts at a penny a second (asterisk included), Ideogram 4.5 gets precise editing, and ElevenLabs ships Eleven v4. AI fall is getting toasty. WHAT'S IN THIS ONE - Kling 4.0 early access: what you actually get right now (Flash, 720p, Ultra annual only) and when the full model lands. - HeyGen Video: HeyGen's first general-purpose video model, built on MiniMax H3 and post-trained by HeyGen. One cent a second is the 50%-off launch price through the end of October, for 480p text- or image-to-video (two cents normally); 768p is a cent and a half on sale, three cents regular; reference-to-video costs double. API, OpenRouter, Runware and ComfyUI now, web app coming. Haven't tested it yet - Gemini 4 Argon: announced, not released (trusted cyber-defense partners first, then paid API and AI Ultra, no date). Google's own numbers put it ahead of GPT-6 Astra and Opus 5.5 on 12 of the 18 benchmarks it reports, plus a 91.7 on LVBench for long-video understanding. The interesting part is what comes next — Nano Banana 2 Pro, a Genie update, Google back in the video race? And how Google answers Muse and OpenAI's dots. - Pour one out for the OG Nano Banana: Gemini 2.5 Flash Image shuts down in the Gemini API on October 2, 2026 - Ideogram 4.5: "the most precise edit model" — edit the same image over and over without the drift. Tested on a ten-month-old image full of garbled text (and a Flamethrower Girl profile-pic swap). Open weights promised. Don't sleep on Ideogram. - Eleven v4 and v4 Turbo: natural-language direction right in the script — laughter, sound effects, delivery — tested on the high-fantasy watchtower opening. Available now, including on the free tier. LINKS MENTIONED Try Kling AI (affiliate): https://klingaiaffiliate.pxf.io/qz3955 Kling 4.0 early access (Flash, Ultra Yearly first): https://kling.ai/blog/kling40-kling-visual-realism-creative-control-introducing-storytelling Inside Kling 4.0 (the complete guide): https://kling.ai/blog/kling-4-ai-video-model Kling 4.0 multiple keyframes guide: https://kling.ai/blog/kling-4-multiple-keyframes-guide HeyGen Video (pricing and access): https://help.heygen.com/en/articles/17272995-introducing-heygen-video-generate-cinematic-clips-from-a-prompt Gemini 4 Argon: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/ Gemini 4 Argon on the Vals Index (independent): https://www.vals.ai/models/google_gemini-4-argon Gemini API model retirements (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image): https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations Ideogram 4.5: https://ideogram.ai/models/4.5/ Try ElevenLabs (affiliate): https://try.elevenlabs.io/w5183uo8pydc Eleven v4 and v4 Turbo: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/eleven-v4 Theoretically News — the weekly newsletter: https://theoreticallymedia.com/newsletter/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Four is your lucky number 00:25 Kling 4 is here (kinda): Flash, early access, Ultra annual only 01:16 Test 1 — text-to-video: the jaywalking ticket 02:01 Test 2 — image-to-video: the FBI agent diner 03:07 Test 3 — Omni: Flamethrower Girl's birthday 04:17 Test 4 — Omni noir: Tom Malloy's office (720p, flat performances) 05:35 The big win: Kling 3.0's lip-sync drift is fixed 05:51 Test 5 — keyframes + Omni reference (up to ten): the vampire hunter 07:01 Early verdict: wait for the full model (October) 07:13 HeyGen Video: a penny a second (with an asterisk) 08:18 Gemini 4 Argon: the giant awakens 08:57 Benchmarks, LVBench and video understanding 09:15 What comes after Gemini 4: Nano Banana 2 Pro, Genie, Veo? 10:10 RIP OG Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) 10:29 Ideogram 4.5: precise editing 10:48 Test 6 — Ideogram 4.5 edit: fixing a ten-month-old image 11:44 ElevenLabs Eleven v4 + v4 Turbo 12:15 Test 7 — Eleven v4: the watchtower audio drama 13:16 Wrap: AI fall is getting toasty #Kling4 #Gemini4 #AIVideo #HeyGen #Ideogram #ElevenLabs #AINews
