I don’t know if it was all the Matrix and Terminator movies we all watched as kids, but when artificial intelligence became a reality this year, it felt like the sky was falling. To be fair, even with all of the benefits, AI is going to drastically transform how we work and interact with one another.
We can’t necessarily say we are fully onboard with the automation of everything either; however, after being in this business for 20 years, we understand that the evolution of technology is inevitable.
I mean think back to the Internet. People thought it would be the end of the world when it first came out. Instead, it provided opportunities for many things that would have never been possible before like connecting with new friends, finding unique interests, and even working remotely.
We still don’t believe AI will replace us, even with all of its capabilities, it still has not mastered human interaction… (yet). Artificial intelligence is just that… “artificial.” However, what it can do is make some of the time-consuming processes of producing videos a hell of a lot faster – which in turn leaves us more time to focus on crafting our stories.
That is why we thought we’d outline some of the latest AI tools which will transform how we produce videos:
If you thought ChatGPT was unbelievable, imagine something with even more capabilities. We give you Chatsonic, the newer and better version of ChatGPT. Both of these tools are still forms of conversational AI (i.e. create text, answer questions, code, translate, and summarize). The main difference is that Chatsonic can produce text and image output while Chat GPT can only use text. Chat GPT also only uses data up to 2021 and is not programmed to search the internet for current events and trends. The only downfall is that while Chat GPT is free, Chatsonic has a 2500-word limit before you have to upgrade to the paid version.
We love reviewing our interviews by reviewing transcripts. It’s just a great way to quickly scan through volumes of material. Now, what Descript does is combine with the transcripts to help locate the actual footage from the transcripts. This can save us tons of time from pulling the selected quotes directly. As with every other tool here, you want to review what’s been pulled to ensure accuracy.
Computer, enhance! Topaz might be the closest thing to the CSI infinite enhance capabilities. It uses AI to enhance low-resolution imagery by quickly calculating the necessary pixels that would need to go into higher-resolution imagery. Now we can most likely use that pic you took on that Palm Pilot of yours back in 2001!
Runway is a new app that allows users to record a video on their phones and transform it into an AI video. You can also convert any existing video in your library into AI by using text prompts, images, and style presets. It generates four previews for users to select and then creates the final video in just under 2 minutes. Even though most of the generators are gimmicky and silly, they can perform small edits on videos that will limit the “can you just…” requests from clients in the future by making edits easier.
Post-production is one of the most time-consuming parts of video production because it has many moving parts and complicated software. Timebolt is a special-purpose editing software with features that help you perform specific editing operations. Even though it is not a full-fledged video editing software, it will make editing easier by removing dead spaces, tightening scenes, adding cuts to the video, and removing silence and awkward pauses from videos. This is something that can drastically reduce the editing time of things like event videos, or longer, straight-to-camera footage.
Rewind is 2023’s version of an AI time traveler. This application will record anything you have seen, said, or heard and make it searchable. Yes. That’s scary. But, if you’re someone with a lot on their minds, and forget what it was that you wrote in your last email or the name of the person you just met… this might be something for you to consider. For example, you can do a quick search for keywords from a meeting, like… “name” and it will search the transcripts and highlight that for you, or you can even ask what you did last week, and a bot will respond with a summary of last week’s highlights, including any meetings, emails, and websites you accessed. Just relating the facts from a non-privacy perspective…
Tome is a website that uses AI to generate presentations using ChatGPT to combine text and images. It can help streamline the process of creating presentations and also allow you to add custom tables, animations, images, and other features to your presentation.
Resemble is a text-to-speech tool that limits the need to hire a voice actor for videos. That’s… also scary. With this tool, you can create AI-generated voices for your videos. You can even adjust the level of emotion in the voice and utilize voice cloning, which allows you to clone your voice and use it in your videos. It’s not quite ready for prime time… but just imagine how it will be a few years from now. This one is extremely disturbing when you think of all the incredible VO actors out there…
Nvidia has many capabilities, but the most important capability for video production is the eye movement feature. Ever glance off camera to check notes… or worry about your subject’s eye line? Nvidia uses AI to simulate your eyes would appear if you were looking directly at the camera – even if you weren’t. Why is that important? Because unless you are a news anchor, reading a script without the camera catching your eye movement is tough. Even if you aren’t using a script it is typical for people to glance down to review their notes which can be distracting to the viewer.
Finally, Storychief is the ultimate distributor of all AI tools. It allows you to post content across your channels simultaneously, either instantly or later via scheduling. This tool will come in handy when you’re thinking about distributing your video.
These are just some of the many incredible tools that have been recently released with helping speed up the process of making videos. There certainly are many others – what are some of the AI tools you might be using?