The Biological Computing Co. (TBC), a San Francisco company that studies living neurons to make AI models more efficient, launched an image-to-video model called TBC Mischief 1 on 30 October 2026. It turns a still image and a text prompt into a short clip, it is sold through the developer platforms fal and OpenRouter, and TBC says it makes video five times faster than the open model it is built on, at half a cent per second of video.
What happened
TBC announced the model in a press release dated San Francisco, 30 October 2026, and switched it on the same day on fal and OpenRouter, two marketplaces where developers pay per use to call AI models from their own software. TBC calls it the lowest-priced image-to-video model on both marketplaces. Image-to-video means you give the model a starting picture, such as a product photo, and a short description of the movement you want, and it returns a video clip.
Mischief 1 is not a model built from scratch. TBC says it is built on Wan 2.2, a widely used open-weight video model, and that it matches Wan 2.2's quality while generating video five times faster. Open-weight means the model's trained files are published so anyone can download and run them. The Wan 2.2 model card on Hugging Face describes it as a family of open video generation models, lists its licence as Apache 2.0, and says its image-to-video model supports 480P and 720P resolutions.
The unusual part is where TBC's speed-up comes from. The company grows living neurons in its laboratory, measures how they process signals and turns what it learns into software. The neurons stay in the lab. What customers use is ordinary software that runs on standard AI hardware and, TBC says, adds less than 0.1% to the size of the base model. The Next Web, which reported the launch on 30 October 2026, noted that TBC has not published independent tests to back up the speed claim.
On 22 September 2026 TBC and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a collaboration to bring the model to enterprise customers, with plans to run it on AWS Trainium chips, make it deployable through Amazon SageMaker AI and sell it in AWS Marketplace. The Decoder reported then that only an early-access sign-up was open. TBC's release of 30 October 2026 says it is now extending access to creators and developers, five weeks after that AWS collaboration.
Key details
| Item | What the published pages say |
|---|---|
| Maker | The Biological Computing Co. (TBC), San Francisco; founded by neurosurgeons Alex Ksendzovsky and Jon Pomeraniec, The Decoder reports |
| Released | 30 October 2026, on fal and OpenRouter |
| What it makes | Video from a first-frame image plus a text prompt (image to video) |
| Resolution | 480p and 720p (OpenRouter's listing) |
| Clip length | 3 and 5 second clips, 16:9 aspect ratios (OpenRouter's listing) |
| Listed price | $0.005 per second at 480p and $0.01 per second at 720p, billed per second of video generated |
| Base model | Wan 2.2, an open video model from Alibaba |
| Speed claim | Five times faster than the base model at the same quality (TBC's own figure, not independently tested) |
TBC puts the price in everyday terms: at half a cent per second, a five-second clip costs 2.5 cents and 100 clips cost $2.50. Those are the 480p prices; the 720p price per second is double. OpenRouter describes the model as suited to ideation, previsualisation, mood boards and testing variants and notes it is not currently available through its EU in-region routing.
Why it matters
Mischief 1 is a short-clip tool sold on price and speed, and a sign that the cost of a usable draft video keeps falling. When a five-second test clip costs a few cents, the expensive part of a video stops being the generation and becomes the human time spent choosing, checking and approving.
It also shows how quickly open models get repackaged. Wan 2.2's weights were published on 28 July 2025, and just over a year later a start-up is selling a faster version through two marketplaces. For a buyer, the name on the product and the model underneath can differ, and so can their terms.
The speed figure is a company claim, and no independent benchmark has been published. Amazon's announcement of 22 September 2026 also carried company figures of 80% lower inference costs. We have covered how fast image tools are moving, from ChatGPT Images 2.5 and its templates to Microsoft's MAI image models in PowerPoint; video is following the same path.
What this means for businesses
Mischief 1 is a developer product, not an app with a "make video" button. Someone calls it through fal or OpenRouter from a script, a content tool or your own software. For an online store, the obvious use is turning product photos into short moving previews for social posts or a product page.
Cheap clips do not remove the usual responsibilities. The ACCC says any claim a business makes about its products, including on websites, must be accurate, truthful and based on reasonable grounds. A generated clip that shows a product doing something it cannot do, or looking different from what the customer receives, is still your advertising. Business.gov.au also reminds owners that generative AI output needs human checking before you use or share it.
Privacy matters when a starting image shows people. The OAIC says privacy obligations apply to personal information put into an AI system and to output that contains it, and recommends that businesses do not enter personal information into publicly available generative AI tools. Its guidance on commercially available AI products also asks you to check how a product was tested, how human oversight fits in and who can access what you upload. A photo of staff or customers can identify them. If you recruit, keep generated video away from anything that stands for a real person: a candidate or staff profile should show the real person, which is what a recruitment and candidate verification platform such as Talent Tabloid is built for.
A short checklist before your business, or your agency, uses a low-cost video model like this one:
- Read the platform's terms for what you may do with the output commercially, and keep a copy. TBC's announcement does not address ownership or commercial use of the clips.
- Check the licence of the base model as well as the product. Wan 2.2's model card lists Apache 2.0; the terms of the tuned product are set by its seller.
- Start with your own product photos and imagery you hold the rights to. Leave out faces of staff and customers unless they have agreed.
- Have a person review every clip before it is published, and compare it with the real product.
- Decide how you will label AI-generated video in ads and on your website, and apply it the same way every time.
- Run your own test: the same image and prompt on two or three models, timed and costed, before you commit a workflow to one supplier.
If you want generated video to feed a product page or a content workflow, most of the work is in the plumbing: where images come from, who approves the output and where it is published. Our website work and IT consulting cover choosing and connecting tools like this, and our page for retail and ecommerce businesses sets out how we help online stores. Our earlier post on EU AI Act transparency rules explains why labelling matters if you sell into Europe. If you would like a second opinion before you commit, ask us for a free first consultation and a written quote.
Frequently asked questions
What is TBC Mischief 1?
It is an image-to-video AI model from The Biological Computing Co., released on 30 October 2026. It turns a starting image and a text prompt into a short video clip, and it is built on the open Wan 2.2 video model.
Does the model run on living brain cells?
No. TBC grows neurons in its lab to study how they process signals, then turns what it learns into software. The neurons stay in the lab, and the model runs on standard AI hardware.
How much does it cost to make a clip?
The listed price is $0.005 per second at 480p and $0.01 per second at 720p. TBC says a five-second clip costs 2.5 cents at half a cent per second, and 100 clips cost $2.50.
Is it five times faster than Wan 2.2?
That is TBC's own claim against Wan 2.2 at the same quality. The company has not published independent tests, so treat the figure as the maker's description until outside testing confirms it.
Can a small business use it without a developer?
Not easily. It is offered through the developer marketplaces fal and OpenRouter, so it is called from software. Without a developer, you would usually reach it through an agency or a content tool connected to those platforms.
Key takeaways
- TBC released Mischief 1, an image-to-video model built on Wan 2.2, on fal and OpenRouter on 30 October 2026.
- Listed prices are $0.005 per second at 480p and $0.01 per second at 720p, for 3 and 5 second clips.
- The five times speed claim is the company's own and has not been independently tested.
- Cheap clips still need human review, accurate advertising, privacy care and clear commercial-use terms.