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The press is breathlessly panting that Apple is doomed because it has not yet released an AI system that sings, dances, and cuts ChatGPT down to size. Sigh.... personally, I'm totally happy if Apple dawdles until the next shiny bauble catches the eyes of the press. You know, like that "gotta have" essential from year's past - a Netbook? (A tip of the hat to the Macalope, a perspicacious curmudgeon who wrote about this last week.)
I started my series of demos at last week's LACPUG meeting by saying that I hate generative AI because there's nothing I can do with it. My publishers require that I not use it, I can't copyright the results, and everything it creates is derivative. But, AI-assisted tasks... now that's a different matter.
Speech-to-text transcription is amazingly helpful, even if it is significantly inaccurate with nouns, acronyms, and jargon. AI-assisted caption translation is useful, as are many of the image repair and enhancement options in the new Resolve 20. I like how AI simplifies converting horizontal video to vertical in all our NLEs, and how it makes it easier than ever to remove background noise. Yeah, AI has value, but I'm in no hurry for the advancing AI-assisted "editing apocalypse."
As an example I showed at the user group, I wrote a two sentence text endorsing Resolve. Then, using Resolve AI Voice Convert, I cloned the voice of the lead product manager for Adobe and had her voice narrate this endorsement. It was scarily accurate, impossible to tell that it was AI-generated, and totally false. A completely convincing deep fake that took about twenty seconds to create.
Or, as another example at the user group meeting I saw a demo of QuickTure, AI-assisted rough-cut editing based on the dialog track. Wow. While this doesn't - at this time - threaten a seasoned craft editor, it sure is scary for any assistant editor. Right now, it just cuts talking heads, but the next version will add B-roll to the edit based on AI analyzing the content of each shot and constructing a visual story based on the sound-track.
As AI takes over more of these mundane but essential tasks, how do new editors - the folks that want to build a career in media - learn what they need to grow their skills?
The next five years will be as disruptive for society and media as the transition from film to digital - if not more so. I'm in no hurry. I'd much rather companies think through the impact their disruption will cause than to simply release products to maximize their revenue.
It is easier to prevent Humpty-Dumpty from falling off the wall, than to put him back together after he breaks apart.
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