Is AI Good for Video Production? (what about humanity?)

our team of humans behind the scenes

I’ve had a lot of conversations about AI which I guess has been self-inflicted.

I was an early adopter in a few areas, mostly out of curiosity.

These days I find myself siding more and more with the skeptics. Not because the tools aren’t impressive, but because the output is getting painfully obvious and boring. And the implications worse by the day.

Scroll through LinkedIn or Instagram and you’ll see it: a flood of AI-generated posts that all smell the same. A flavor of writing that is somehow both exaggerated and milquetoast. Too polished, too empty.

And worst of all, it’s being passed off as “creative work.” You aren’t fooling anybody.

The Real Problem

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Look, I get that this might sound hypocritical – I’ve talked a lot about the topic. But if you’re using it to generate your ideas or worse create finished products it really shouldn’t be a point of pride.

That’s just laziness. You know who I’m talking about because this is everywhere!

You can’t outsource your judgement and your brain. Why would you want to?

So... Is AI Useful in Production?

• Captioning & transcription
  We’ve been using this tech for at least five years. It used to be called machine learning. Now it’s called AI. Either way: extremely useful.

• Content summaries & cutdowns
  I’d never ask AI to edit a video. Not even from a moral high ground but it just bad at this kinda stuff. But AI is quite good at identifying strong moments from longer clips and speed up batch formatting for vertical or short-form. This is something no one really enjoyed doing and took a ton of time.

• Image upscaling & repair
  I’ve been messaged by folks extremely critical on my stances with this stuff. But I just don’t see how you can be opposed to something like image repair. It is bringing things back to life that would otherwise be lost to time. Especially in docs, we are often forced to work with files that are in bad condition or just tiny. The ability to upscale and improve these is both impressive and extremely helpful as a storytelling tool.

What AI Shouldn’t Touch

• Prompting creative work
  The basis of creative work is our shared human experience. The simple fact that an AI can approximate some of this work is really beside the point. Do you really want to read a book prompted by AI? Or watch an AI film? It’s interesting and occasionally funny but let’s keep some of the better parts of the human experience for actual humans.

• Replacing your team
  If anyone wants to end-run capitalism at scale, this will be the way to do. Using new tools and automations to improve efficiencies and make our team work better, yes. But cutting out collaborators is not only evil it is the fastest way to watch your engagement plummet. AI generated content is forgettable.

• Passing Off AI Work as Original
  If it wasn’t created by a person, don’t try to pass it off as original. Whether it’s images, writing, or clips. We all should have more respect for the human touch.

• IP Theft

  People working in the creative industries should really know better. IP is the core value of our work product. Why is it legal or fair for centuries of precedent to get thrown out in favor of “progress”? This change will be coming soon so I guess enjoy it while it lasts.

The Grey Area

• AI memes
  I won’t lie I’ve seen some pretty funny AI generated memes. But they are almost always based around the likeness of known individuals. Ordinarily you would claim fair use but how far do these laws go?

• AI image generation
  or pitch decks or quick turn storyboards & posts, this one I’m definitely guilty of (see here). There are ethical implications here that are tough to unpack, but often this is replacing stock footage anyways so I’m more inclined to give it a pass based on sheer utility. But it needs to be based around a licensing model that compensates artists.

• Background replacement & VFX
  I know for a fact that this is being used already in major studios. And ever time it’s put out in the open yields controversy. Conversely it is an appealing option when VFX budgets are shrinking and overall film revenue is dropping. See above WRT licensing.

The Takeaway

Used properly AI tools can help your content team move faster and stay focused on the important high-touch work.

But if you start treating it like a replacement for your creative process – or worse, your people – what are you really hoping to accomplish?

Whether it’s good on balance remains a much bigger question.

And one we all have to answer for ourselves: Do you care about the world we’re leaving to the next generation of Actual Humans?