Artificial Intelligence & Video Content: Could We Be Replaced?

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Artificial Intelligence has been a leading topic of conversation in many industries since the turn of the year. Platforms such as ChatGPT and updates to pre-existing tools such as Canva have left creatives wondering whether they could be out of a job by 2024. It is picking up pace and is transitioning from something that completes tasks, to something that ‘thinks’. If it doesn’t end humanity as we know it – fingers crossed – there could be other ways it’ll impact society. As a video production agency, we thought we’d weigh in on the conversation. 

 

What does artificial intelligence mean for the video and content industry?

Artificial intelligence is only going to get ‘more intelligent’ from here. It is going to continue to enhance exponentially over the coming years and it therefore cannot be ignored. 

Before computers, film was on a reel. Before the reel, it was print ads and art work was hand drawn. Our industry, and the wider advertising and marketing industry, is constantly evolving and adapting as technology of all kinds continues to explode – this is nothing new. With every new piece of technology, as ‘real people’ we gain more time to think, more time to explore our creativity and more time to deliver. 

However, we don’t feel that artificial intelligence will replace creatives within the video and content industry. Because beautiful and effective video content is so much more than simply an end product – it requires creativity, experiences, emotion, strategy, intelligence and more. With this in mind, the bigger question might be…

 

What is the value of creativity and where does it come from? 

Ask any author, ‘what inspired you?’ and their response will be a culmination of their everyday life, historical facts, their experiences abroad, a TV series they watched and other books they have read. The best creativity comes from those who have experienced a variety of different things and can link them together to create an idea, a story, a work of art. 

The next integral part of creativity is emotion. Lots of people can experience one event, together, but it is their perception of and emotion surrounding that situation that enables them to draw links – and their links will be different to those around them. Creativity is personal.

On the contrary, artificial intelligence is fed information from various sources and continues to learn, taking on board more information than our brains ever could. Though it will be able to create links between different pieces of information, it lacks its own emotion and perception, incapable of truly understanding how a situation might be perceived. Emotion is a key element of storytelling, particularly within the video and content industry. It therefore lacks the ability to be truly creative.

 

The uses of artificial intelligence in video and animation

While we’re very much ‘team human’ here at Bearded Fellows, there are some pros of artificial intelligence in the industry. 

1. Inspiring creativity: Artificial intelligence can play a role in helping humans to create links between their own personal experiences, enabling them to build a scene they may not have otherwise. 
2. Increased data availability: similarly to Google, AI can help us video creatives to gain greater access to data, stories and experiences. This can enhance our ability to be authentic in our video deliverables.
3. Sense checking: Ensuring the creative is relatable and will resonate with a wider audience through artificial intelligence research. 

The limitations of artificial intelligence in video and animation

We can’t imagine many ‘Bearded Robots’ anytime soon – artificial intelligence will not be playing a dominant role in video and content agencies like ours. This is because of its various limitations, three of which are listed below:

1. Lifetime experiences: Artificial intelligence cannot have its own experiences – which is a significant component in creativity.
2. Emotional abilities: Our emotional perspectives of experiences is what makes video content relatable and understandable. Without the ability to experience emotion, content would be pretty flat. 
3. Thinking outside the box: Companies are constantly competing for the best talent. But if companies are all using the same platform for their video content, they will lose the ability to stand out. Artificial intelligence cannot ‘think outside the box’ or challenge itself. It’ll therefore not be relied upon a source of professional video.

 

 

4 artificial intelligence tools you could incorporate into your marketing or creative process

DALL-E-2 by Open AI

The DALL-E-2 artificial intelligence programme can create hyper-realistic art of images from a descriptive trigger, written in natural language. It will take the information or request you provide and actualise it as best as it can. As a platform, this can be best utilised for idea generation – rather than sketching or creating moodboards, DALL-E-2 can provide multiple variations for you to incorporate into your initial drafts and workflows. 

Voice AI

Voice AI can be hugely beneficial for copying your voice – or that of someone else – and incorporating it into your content. Just 2 minutes of speech recognition is required and Voice AI will do the work for you. From the perspective of a marketing or content agency, Voice AI could help in the briefing process, testing out different tones of voices and infections with your script before providing your project to a voice over artist for the real deal.

AI Agency

Created for all the marketing agencies out there, AI Agency is a tool that creates a pitch desk with three ideas to take to your prospect. While we wouldn’t recommend a cookie-cutter approach to your proposals, it can certainly help with sense-checking an idea you have or if you struggle with the structure of a pitch desk. A fun and insightful tool to utilise.

ChatGPT by Open AI 

The platform that has triggered the conversation – ChatGPT has exploded in popularity, quickly taking TikTok’s title of ‘Fastest Growing App in History’, having reached 100 million users in just 2 months. Providing conversational written responses, users have the ability to ‘ask ChatGPT anything’ and ChatGPT will respond in a human manner. ChatGPT can provide content ideas and strategy – however just like for video, it could result in more businesses simply sounding the same. 

 

How will artificial intelligence impact us at Bearded Fellows?

Artificial intelligence is not yet ready to create end products. It could support creativity and productivity in some roles, potentially overhauling marketing strategies in ways we haven’t seen since Facebook added video formats into their feed. However at this stage, it is not polished, nor is it able to ‘be creative’ and think outside of its own box.

For us at Bearded Fellows, it doesn’t play a role in our creative processes, nor does it make our production processes more efficient. It is another tool that is not made for us as an established video partner for businesses – yet. 

If you’re looking to continue working with real human creatives (while you still can!) – get in touch to start your next project.