Runway Characters Ships Real-Time Video Agent — Single-Image-to-Avatar at 24fps With 37ms Model Latency

Runway·medium signal

Runway announced Characters on May 4, a real-time video agent built on GWM-1 (General World Model) that turns a single reference image into a fully expressive conversational video character. The system produces natural lip-sync, facial expressions, and head motions at 24fps in HD with 37ms model latency per frame and 1.75-second server-side turnaround. Zero fine-tuning required — embed a real-time avatar into any web app with a single line of code via the Runway API.