18 April 2023

It's the cool new thing of 2023 and has got people from all walks of life fascinated, intrigued and full of fear all at the same time. Has the day finally come where robots can do our jobs rendering us obsolete?

We’ve all been aware of the automation of jobs for many years now but what’s making some of us panic is that it’s coming after the creatives too?!

Personally I have my doubts about this tool that is only in its infancy but, despite this, I’m prepared to explore its scope. And, so, here, at the house of Fat Rat, we thought we’d put the artificial intelligence tools to the test. The experiment explores how AI is going to change social media videos and how it can be a helpful tool for all our lovely non-profit clients.

The AI experiment: The controls we’ve set ourselves are simple; our in-house editor Charlie will feed a singular script (written by us) and images/videos into the chosen AI program of the week. Depending on how good the video output is, we will spend a maximum of 2 hours tweaking it. The only variable will be the AI software used each week.

N.B We will be only using AI software that is free to use or has a free trial available.

Week 1: InVideo

Although suitably impressed with this final output, it’s not content which would pass our quality controls. We’ve gathered together further thoughts below:

• The pacing isn’t right. From the speed of the robotic VO to the choice of the number of images used to illustrate points within the script makes it feel sluggish and quite frankly boring.
• Bridging between one section to another is lazy.
• The tone and speed of the VO is entirely wrong for the style of the output. It should be fun, upbeat, fast and full of energy. N.B There is an option to not include VO or add our pre-recorded VO but this is much more time consuming and doesn't fall within the parameters of the rules we set ourselves.
• It is humourless. Despite the script being in ‘our voice’ the software doesn't seem to understand where to pause for effect or to add a cheekier tone of voice.
• The software doesn't seem to understand dates, countries and nuance resulting in the wrong images being used to illustrate specific times and places and unfortunately this software doesn't even give you an option to tag.
• Some images have been cropped meaning the main information within that image has been cut out.
• The text on screen is good but again far too slow for a quick output like this. I feel this video could be 30 seconds or less if treated right.

Whether you’re a filmmaker or a client, how do you think AI-generated videos might impact the creative industry?