AI Generated Video Production and the Question of Authenticity
Like much of the rest of the world I have been playing around with AI generated content including, articles, ad copy, scripts, images and video for the past few years.
Up until recently, affordable Artificial Intelligence generated video has been more of a novelty than a perfectly useful tool. However, I feel we have now finally crossed the threshold into AI video being something that certainly has its place and can be used to generate social media content and as an adjunct to videos such as training videos or other informational content.
Where we have to be careful is in trying to stay true to our message and not use AI to deceive our audience into thinking we are someone we are not or that our message is not “authentic.”
The term authenticity is bandied about quite a bit especially as it pertains to business video and social media videos in particular. That is why we are seeing so many videos of people walking down the street, recording from their car, or simply staring into their laptops. It’s because there is a feeling that these spontaneously generated videos are more authentic. In other words, they are not overly produced therefore they appear more honest.
Because of years of media saturation – – that is to say being bombarded by thousands of highly engineered messages over the past 50 years people have grown suspect of video promotions and content that looks too “slick” or appears to have been created to manipulate your thinking rather than simply inform the intended audience about certain advantages of a product or service. So welcome to the age of the video influencer and the homegrown selfie style videos.
Keep in mind there is still a place for more controlled video content but that is a subject for another article.
Where does AI fit into the mix?
Not everyone has the skill or inclination to produce selfie style videos. AI provides a kind of hybrid alternative. You have control over the message but the AI avatar can provide a more conversational or off-the-cuff presentation for you without having to hire actors.
AI images by their very nature are dishonest. They are fabrications of reality. In the examples I am providing below, the images you see of people and their voices have been generated by AI. They are not flesh and blood people – – they are avatars.
The word avatar comes from a specific concept in Hinduism, where an “avatar” is a manifestation of a deity in bodily form. Our photorealistic avatars are not manifestations of deities but they are representations or manifestations of entities, in this case human beings created digitally.
In my opinion the best and most honest use of these avatars is to present information in a form that is easier for actual humans to consume. You could read the information but many people (myself included) prefer to have an audio visual experience. Actually the important part for me is the audio. The image of another human in many cases makes the experience more enjoyable than a disembodied voice, a cartoon avatar or static powerpoint style slide show. But making that happen with actual people can be costly and time consuming.
The intention of an AI avatar should not be to “trick” the viewer but rather to enhance their experience.
Humanity has long been intrigued by the notion of robots or Disney style animatronic humanoids as a way to entertain and share information. Well, the digital version is much more flexible, has far fewer moving parts and is at this moment much more accessible to assist us with some communications tasks in a much less complicated and affordable way than using flesh and blood humans.
CASE HISTORY
In this case a client approached me with a prerecorded voice-over. The script was derived from the written content on his website and incidentally was gathered and assembled by an AI bot instructed to read the website and write a script featuring a male and female podcaster discussing the merits of his service.
After making a few adjustments, the written script was given to a second AI program to create an actual MP3 recording of the two people talking which could be used as a standalone podcast or as a voiceover.
The client presented me with the finished voiceover and asked If it was possible to fashion it into a video. Which I did and which you can see below.
I will not go into the details of how that was accomplished, but it did entail the use of at least three different software apps to get the guts of the production completed plus two more to add a few embellishments.
The long and short of it is that there is still a bit of a learning curve and a little editing knowledge necessary to get an acceptable result at a reasonable cost. The process is not exactly simply a case of writing a prompt then waiting for the AI software to spit out a perfect result. However “acceptable” is in the eye of the beholder and more expensive programs may provide better results quicker. But even that is a matter of experimental trial and error.
This first video example below is the longer 8 minute version which I then edited down to create 9 shorter social media style videos that could be used to share specific pieces of information.
In my test, people who do not know this is AI generated do not seem to suspect anything odd about the videos. Those who are aware of the AI aspect are more likely to notice the minor anomalies. However still feel it is amazing.
The shorter versions are generally more acceptable because there is less time to scrutinize. Anyway people today seem to prefer shorter bursts of information. Viewers are more inclined to watch several short videos designed to cover specific topics or answer specific questions rather than watch one longer video.
Some of the best use cases for this type of video are short promotional content as in this example or as part of an FAQ page on a website, because it’s more enjoyable and effective to have someone personally answer your question or provide you with information.
Here are three of the shorter social media versions.
Contact us to discuss how Artificial Intelligence can be used to augment you promotional marketing, social media, HR, or educational video objectives.
*Note: This article was written by Reno Lovison “an actual human.”
