I'm a longtime customer. There's been a couple of failed generations recently with Hedra-3, and its prompt adherence seems to be cosmetic than practical. There are only a few workable angles without videos becoming unusable (clean portrait shots have the best results), and though emotions remain the most expressive in the space—rivals are catching up. Hedra-3 also has minor distortions. For my use case though, it is good enough. It maintains facial identity much better than other models, and it is very useful for presentations, training videos, explainer videos etc. due to its scalability.However, Hedra's pivot into meme templates and a Higgsfield type business model is a disappointment. Maybe most customers use these templates, I'm not sure—but I find that it does not serve creators who are buying their most premium plans well.It would be nice if the founding team can focus their efforts on strengthening their core competency (AI avatar talking) by exploring the following:1. Open-source models like Wan S2V. I'm not sure about licensing, but these open models are getting really robust.2. Actually having a NSFW allowed policy if requests are made through API like FAL. 3. A UI specifically designed for the serious creator. Think what small businesses, new AI creators want to see in a dashboard. Surely, t2i, i2i, i2v, talking head inferences could be designed in such a way that Hedra becomes a studio of sorts. The new composer feature seems half-baked. 4. Audio, again, licensing may take things difficult, but there are MANY TTS that can out compete Eleven Labs. Creators may not have the technical know-how to use them, and general consumers may find it difficult to access them. It's easier said than done, but I think the founders need to trust their gut—instead of following the advice of VCs on ways to pivot their business (VCs are a very incapable bunch, aside from capital raising). The original Hedra seemed promising, but now, I think it is losing its mandate.EDIT: Thanks to the founder for clarifying a couple of things I got incorrect. Appreciate him taking the time to respond. We are all learning here. We definitely have differing opinions on technology in this space, because I am not as resolute as he is on "better" or "cheaper". Ultimately—the burden is on the creators to make money with AI content (shovel selling during a gold rush). So godspeed to everyone trying to find a place in this new economy.
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