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Hacker News Hacker NewsBut i've seen several good videos made using AI, including pretty much everything NeuralViz[0] on YouTube makes, but also some that have been posted in older comments here in HN. Igorrr's ADHD music video[1] was also made using AI and fit the music perfectly.
The common aspect with these "good" uses though is that they do not let the AI do 99% of the job (as mentioned in another comment) but they still involve editing, writing/scripting, acting (NeuralViz for example uses his webcam to act both the motion and voice in his videos and uses AI to change them) and to some extent leaning into the "weirdness" that AI videos have instead of ignoring it.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/@NeuralViz (i high recommend watching them in upload order because they all build into the same "universe" and often make references to older videos)
When I hear talk about AI risks I mostly hear things like runaway super intelligence doing whatever it wants and leaving humanity in the lurch. But what about more realistic concerns, like accelerating the race to the bottom by cheaply and poorly ripping off other people’s work and forcing everyone else to do the same just to keep up?
However, 99% of the the "creativity" from what I've seen is done by the AI (how it should look, where the cuts need to happen, the tone, color grading, etc). Which is to say, it's taken from other people's (creative) work.
While a big part of being able to create a good video has much to do with storytelling, the craft of shooting and editing a video is a big part of the creative process as well.
AI video isn't "enabling people to be more creative," it is quite literally removing creativity from the process all together.
AI has given me the opportunity to do it. I just have to keep prompting to get the exact feeling and I can share my idea.
I don't like these curmudgeonly takes.. I'm sure this "All AI Videos Are Harmful" take will age just like how "All videos are harmful" and "All cartoons are harmful" have aged.
We know this because actually existing talented film makers have done entertaining work with AI video. But it's silly to use it as justification to write it off just because you're not talented in the field.
I do find myself questioning the premise that accepting a 'synthetic reality where nothing can be trusted' is automatically bad. I've long felt that everyone took what they saw on the internet at face value when they should not. I do hope that injecting enough chaos into the system can force people to question their intake more consistently.
It's clear that plenty are doing the following:
- find a random topic tied to their channel, e.g. some battle in Napoleonic wars
- have Perplexity do as much research on the topic
- have AI write a script for 20 minutes of it based on research
- genAI images and video content
- genAI the voiceover
- profit
I hate it.
It's not even terrible content, nor it's not informative, but it's soulless and not very entertaining.
Worst thing is that you're not told it's AI generated so you looking at pictures of the battle thinking they come from real paintings or something, so you maybe want to research more about that painting and it's all fake and not ai labeled.
TikTok has it even worse. I think I've seen the "mother protects child from avalanche on a porch" variation in any goddamn way, with wolves, bears, people, deer, snow tigers..nothing is ai labeled and it all pretends to be genuine.
Most videos about funny pets, which I loved, are also super fake. Labrador saves small child from falling tv, British shorthair chasing mastiff...all of this fake..
None of it labeled. It's slop after slop.
Good. Its beneficial, I'd think. Lies are not new, the amount of lies, probably not new either.
I don't think we have (yet) reached a level of badness compared to the prior point of tobacco companies telling people around the world that cigarettes have medical benefits.
It's not just a pedantic issue. Making these kinds of extremely bold and all covering claims is par for the course for those who want to find and exploit attention from others for profit. If that's not what the author is doing I think the most charitable interpretation I can come up with is that they just have no experience with AI videos and are going off sensational press stories.
They should buy an nvidia 3060 12GB ($200~ second hand) and try out wan2.2 on their home computer. It's really fun to be able to make these kind of videos on a whim. And they'll get some real lived experience with the subject.
Obviously an incorrect statement?
I will grant that most AI-generated videos I've experienced seem like novelties... although they've generated plenty of "valuable" humor. Certainly not universal harm!
Give it time for the tool to be improved and for people to make better use of it?
This holds us back, halting progress that could be truly positive for humanity, because having a society that's moving in opposite directions keeps us stagnant.
This has been going on for far too many years.
Let AI users use it. And let's train those who are defenseless against this advancement so they can decide for themselves.
that's quite the definition of 'harmful'
Yesterday on the comment thread for the "Attention is Bayesian Inference" blog post (which definitely seems to have been written by AI), a couple people were asking "who cares who/what wrote it, if it has good information", and others were struggling to articulate a response. Well, for me this is the response: it has a specific tone, and every time I see it it activates my gag reflex and I back-button straight out of the page. I'm not interested in examining or deconstructing this response either, as far as I'm concerned it's evolutionarily adaptive and I intend to keep it.
That was an AI-generated video (for a very primitive definition of AI). I think we're all pretty ok with the concept.
When the day comes that the author can fulfill his dream that will not be a good day. And AI videos will be even more dangerous then.
The time where this becomes normal and these alarmists become the fringe crazies ranting about the end of civilization cannot come fast enough.
There has to be a middle ground between insurmountable obstacles and "whip your phone out, push button to generate, and send".
Put down the phone, close that youtube, tik tok or whatever tab.
Don't try to explain to your relatives which video is AI and which is not, explain to them that everything on the internet is bullshit and trolling, AI or not it does not matter it's all bullshit to sell ads.
Tell them they are better off watching TV, even Fox news.
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1. "Good AI work exists when humans stay involved"
Quality AI videos exist but require human editing, scripting, acting - not letting AI do 99% of the work. Examples: NeuralViz, Igorrr's music videos.
2. "AI removes creativity, doesn't enable it"
AI handles creative decisions (color grading, cuts, tone) that were previously human craft. This strips creativity from the process rather than democratizing it.
3. "Execution is the creativity"
Ideas are worthless - execution is what matters. AI removes the execution process, which is where real creative work happens. "Using AI is like using an aimbot for music."
4. "AI enables creative expression for those locked out"
Counter-position: High-concept filmmaking was previously only for the privileged. AI lets people with vision but without technical skills/money/connections realize their ideas.
5. "Race to the bottom / slop flood"
AI's main "strength" is cranking out content at scale, flooding platforms with low-quality material faster than humans can filter. The internet is being overrun with unlabeled AI garbage.
6. "Trust erosion is the real harm"
Even "harmless" AI videos contribute to a world where nothing visual can be trusted. This affects everyone regardless of whether they consume AI content directly.
7. "Theft at scale"
Models exist only because of mass ingestion of creative work without consent. Using AI tools participates in this regardless of output quality.
8. "Platforms will adapt / people will learn"
Optimistic view: Recommendation algorithms will filter slop, people will recognize AI aesthetic as they did MS Paint edits, and good content will surface.
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Personal take: all these points are true/valid/correct/accurate.
Controversial take: regardless, cat's outta the bag now and there's little we can do to stop it.
Frankly, the sooner we lose this trust the better. It's better to adjust our expectations than to stay vulnerable to manipulations
tilt at this windmill all you like, but the genie is out of the bottle and there's nothing you can do about it but kvetch. you can't ban it, you can't regulate it, no more than the US government could rein in cryptography.
it always rubs me the wrong way when people infantilize the masses. The "vulnerable" masses already already partake in lots of harmful substances and practices (tobacco, alcohol, drugs, gambling/lotto), AI videos are just another potential pitfall people will need to learn to be wary of.
Making a hyperbolic statements stating that it is all harmful, because there are deceptive usages of AI is just asinine.
This feels like a very strongly opinionated anti-AI echo chamber; while I absolutely recognize the destructive potential of AI video, I think the author is far off to the extreme end of completely ignoring every useful use case, and also, being somewhat naive.
For example, trying to explain to people in your group chat why an AI video is fake, when they are not attentive to this message or never showed any sign they might care, and then being disappointed when nobody listens. Imagine crashing into a party and explaining to everybody why the music sucks and the food is bad; you might be right, but did you consider they just want to have a good time, and they just don't care?
Since I've been to this rabbit hole myself, as I assume have many other readers with elderly parents, let me share my own experience. I've taken the time to show the older people in my family how AI works and how easy it is to create anything fake - including using their own appearance and voice! - and in the end of the day, they don't care. When forwarding a fake video, they say they know it's fake, but they still agree with the message, or liked the cute animals, so they forwarded it.
This is old people for you.
Now, I feel that during the post, the author has progressed from stating their own opinion on AI videos, to subtly claiming everybody hates AI videos and feel a physical sickness when seeing one, to the point that YouTube is scaring off viewers. This - while at the same time detailing how some people forward these videos like crazy. So which one is it?
Well, I for one don't hate AI video as much as I hate bad, sloppy videos, but to be honest these have been around for a long time, there's a massive surge of misinformation and just aweful - and completely organic - videos out there. AI videos do open the door for very creative and awesome creations, and I've seen plenty of those, and enjoyed them quite a bit.
This is just another tool. It's all up to you how you use it and what you create. Blaming the tool is just not going to work, just like blaming an instrument for the music being bad. The blame is with the composition, not the instrument.
There will be a time, very soon, where you will not be able to tell it's AI. In fact, this time is now, and I assure you that some AI content in the right hands is just not distinguishable from the real thing anymore. You may have even seen, or - God help us - even enjoyed an AI generated video, without realizing it, and this will happen more often as these tools mature.
This is just my 2 cents. I hope you will be able to finish you AI movie one day.
Bigfoot comes to mind.