A Manchester-based video production company is warning businesses about the dangers of over-reliance on generative AI in branding videos.
AI has rarely been out of the headlines since Open AI released ChatGPT in November 2022. Now, more and more advanced tools are hitting the web, and some are more useful than others according to production house Eight Engines.
The tools claim to create original, entertaining content from nothing but a few words of prompting and big names like Adobe have been dipping their toes into creating AI-based tools to make things like video production easier. With the release of their new “revolutionary” Firefly Software, it looks like AI is really causing a commotion.
But the video production experts at Eight Engines are urging caution over the arrival of AI in the pridcuction industry.
“AI is an exciting development, and there’s lots of things you can use it for. However, it simply cannot replace human creativity or emotion. Emotion is what drives sales, brand image and creates reactions. This is the reason video marketing has such a big return on investment,” said Jack Leigh, creative director of the company.
According to a recent report conducted by the University of Southern California, emotion is one of the most significant parts of video production. The research found that 31 per cent of emotional video adverts succeed, whereas only 16 per cent of rational content results in purchase.
Lack of emotion is detrimental to effective video production, the Eight Engines team claim, and the most memorable videos are ones that illicit an emotional reaction from the viewer. Emotion is something AI cannot yet convey.
Leigh also points to the lack of originality frequently found in AI video production: “AI videos lack originality and quality. Software such as DALL.E requires expert human input before it can even generate something remotely realistic. Quite often, the videos produced are laggy, and look more like picture flip-books. AI has a long way to go before it can compete with high quality, man-made videos,” Leigh affirmed.
He has a point – currently AI creates ‘original’ content by training on hundreds of examples of existing art produced by humans and reimagining these pieces. For now, at least, it appears that using AI in creative production may not be ideal, though with the rapid rate of change in the industry, who knows what could yet occur?
Eight Engines has created branded video content for clients including TfGM, Wonder and Screen and Film School Manchester.
