Generated AI video: Temper excitement with skepticism

Both claim to produce movie-quality video clips with just a few words of text. This has sparked a debate over the impact of AI on the inherently artistic filmmaking and advertising industries. However, initial reactions to their potential magical abilities seem lukewarm at best.

Three content creators and three filmmaking and advertising veterans. mint While it's too early to give a verdict since neither Veo nor Sora can even be tried in India at the moment, the general consensus is that they may not be the mainstays of video production.

Instead, the footage that may be produced by such AI models is, at best, used to easily visualize the script during the pre-production stage, or as a filler or “B” used longer as a background. It is only used to create “role” content. Huge amount of movies and advertisements.

Other AI models

It's certainly not just Sora and Veo. On January 27, Google Research announced Lumiere, a new text-based AI model that it claims “depicts realistic, diverse, and consistent movement.”

Beyond Big Tech, from Synthesia to Runway, generated video tools have been available to the general public for over a year now.

These demonstrate the significant potential of generative video models. Both OpenAI and Google claim that multimodality in video generation models is a key capability for creative professionals, given the power of Big Tech and the vast resources of computing and data at their fingertips. It can be an important resource to leverage or compete with. .

For example, Varun Mayya, a Bangalore-based tech content creator with a cumulative audience of about 2.2 million across multiple Instagram and YouTube channels, uses AI to generate filler footage and off-camera videos for much of his content. Mayya focuses on AI-based instructional video content for developers and engineers, but also leverages AI to help schedule his video productions.

Mayya is leveraging AI, but many others are not. Her two other content creators, who work closely with YouTube and requested anonymity to protect their respective brand partnerships, said the generative video platform may not be inclusive and branded. said that it could lead to complications.

“Brands may not want to know that a particular video was used with generated AI. There are concerns in the market that the use of AI videos could lead to copyright lawsuits, and Nor do organizations want such complications. This is currently an obstacle in India, at least until regulations and legal clarity are established,” one of the producers told Mint. Ta.

But each of these authors confirmed that generative AI is being used successfully and in practice in India at a more than experimental pace. The early mood is hopeful but lukewarm, with some citing quality issues and others concerned about intellectual property infringement.

“Most content creators have originality agreements with their clients. For them, if the material used to train the generative AI model is from a third party and that is reflected in the output, then the intellectual It can lead to property infringement,” said Shailendra Bander, partner at law firm Khaitan & Company.

“This is because the resulting output would be a derivative work from third-party material and multiple clients could achieve the same result if they use the same software. This could also lead to breach of contract and infringement of third-party intellectual property,” said Shailendra Bandea, partner at law firm Khaitan & Company.

Content oversaturation

Creative veterans have mixed views: Yash Kulshresh, chief creative officer at Mumbai-based creative agency Atom Network, said that so far, based on early testing and reviews, most AI tools “lack the emotional depth and unique perspective that humans bring.”

“On the positive side, storyboarding and concept visualization will become more efficient and cost-effective. This democratization of creativity will allow smaller agencies and independent creators to compete more effectively.” It can facilitate a new era of rapid prototyping and iterative feedback. It also serves as a great alternative to the usual hygiene content that brands post on social media.” said.

However, he added that content oversaturation is a significant risk. “The ease with which visuals are generated can result in a plethora of mediocre content being produced. This can make it even more difficult for truly innovative ideas to stand out. “The goal is for creators to leverage AI as a tool to enhance their work, focusing on originality, authenticity, and emotional connection, and maintaining the uniqueness of human-driven creativity,” he said. .

Death of creativity?

Nevertheless, all involved acknowledge that AI is an evolving field and its long-term impact is difficult to predict. On April 22, Synthesia announced its latest AI model, Express-1. The latter has demonstrated the ability to generate avatars that can imitate human voices, potentially replacing anchors that tell stories on screen. Synthesia is also very serious about its efforts and is part of the Coalition on Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), which includes Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

Runway, another startup, announced its latest model, the Gen-2, last March. Since then, the company has showcased various video generation capabilities of its AI models and partnered with Nvidia to host an “AI Film Festival” in Los Angeles, USA. On April 15, the company announced 10 winners for films created using AI models and tools and offered them approximately $35,000 in prize money.

This clearly reflects the potential of AI. “We have never seen anything like this, and it would be naive to think that the current response is static. This is just the beginning of AI, and ultimately the future of our industry will depend on humans.” The synergy of creativity and technological advances will ensure that the heart and soul of our work remains unmistakably human,” added Kourshles.

“The fundamental thing to understand is that AI has no imagination of its own,” said Chaitanya Chinchilkar, vice-chancellor and chief technology officer at the Mumbai-based Whistling Woods International Film School. I am.

“At the level of every pixel that AI creates, it becomes a synthesis of content that the algorithm has already seen or been trained on. This makes AI at best an auxiliary tool for the visual creation industry. The industry benefits This may not take away jobs from creative professionals.”