In the current era of rewriting media content and user thinking through short videos, the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies represented by Midjournal and ChatGPT, along with new AI technologies, reshapes the rapidly developing and changing video era. When short videos with short content and rapid dissemination encounter intelligent and convenient artificial intelligence technology, both content and tools seem to coincide at this moment, indicating a production transformation. Artificial intelligence technology, as a tool and means, not only empowers short video creation, but also naturally brings new challenges and problems to content production. Before predicting that artificial intelligence technology will become a key point in the future development of short videos, anchoring the positive or negative possibilities is the attitude and method to deal with the current short video market.
Artificial intelligence technology empowers short video creation
In a relatively short period of time, short video platforms have rapidly developed into the short video industry, with increasingly diversified and vertical content creation, entering the current stock market from the incremental market, attracting more and more creators to flock and explore the short video creation market. Nowadays, the birth and development of artificial intelligence technology, with more intelligent technology, has also joined the short video creation market. Due to its high compatibility with the creative characteristics and models of short videos, it releases a signal that artificial intelligence technology empowers short video creation and reshapes the short video market.
Not long ago, artificial intelligence technology was still limited to synthesizing sound and AI painting, as one of the creative parts, improving the convenience and efficiency of short video creation. Artificial intelligence technology can achieve updates and iterations in just a short amount of time. Text generation models represented by ChatGPT and Google Bert, as well as image generation models represented by Midjournal V5, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E2, mark the rapid upgrade of artificial intelligence technology from speech to static images and then to dynamic images. Nowadays, the birth of cultural video models represented by Sora has further upgraded the Runway cultural image model from last year, optimizing video effects, improving the accuracy of simulating the physical world, and entering the creative field with more intelligent content generation technology. At this point, artificial intelligence generation technology has fully penetrated short videos, from early planning, mid-term creation to later packaging, and even marketing and promotion from beginning to end. Artificial intelligence technology can not only provide intelligent suggestions and optimize short video texts during the creative production and development stage of short videos; It can also complete video editing and polishing, dubbing and subtitle settings, and even content generation itself. Currently, SORA can automatically generate 60 second short videos; In addition, artificial intelligence technology can also conduct audience analysis on current hot topics, extract focus points and produce content that matches market preferences. It can also be used for media analysis and user profiling, distribute content according to user needs, and provide user stickiness in supply and demand matching.
It can be seen that artificial intelligence technology has improved the creation of short videos at all stages, empowering them in all aspects. Since the invention of fire by humans, the original intention of the birth of any tool or technology has been to liberate humanity, serve humanity, and continuously promote the process of social civilization. Artificial intelligence technology is no exception. At the beginning, it served as an auxiliary tool to help creators improve the efficiency of writing, drawing, and filming videos, promoting the development of short video creation towards twice the result with half the effort. Later, as artificial intelligence technology rapidly developed into an original generation mechanism, a continuous stream of production power made AI painting, AI generated videos, and virtual digital humans all part of the production content itself. The virtual world was no longer a concept, but a physical existence. In addition, the function of artificial intelligence technology in the field of short videos lies not only in production and creation, but also in identification and screening. In short video platforms filled with homogeneous and massive content, artificial intelligence technology can help identify the uniqueness of videos, determine whether there is any editing or adaptation behavior in videos, and can be used for the protection of intellectual property rights and original content. The content understanding function of artificial intelligence technology reduces the cost of manual review. The empowerment of artificial intelligence technology in short video creation is not only a source of assistance, but also a maintenance and promotion that accompanies the entire process.
The Dilemma of Short Video Creation under Artificial Intelligence Technology
The voice of technological optimism also implies the existence of technological pessimism. Technology is both a gift and a burden. While artificial intelligence technology empowers short video creation and assists in the development of the short video market, it is bound to bring challenges and various problems. As early as 2021, the "Ant Ya Hey" incident triggered by the AI face changing software Avatarify exposed ethical issues after the combination of artificial intelligence technology and short videos. The event started on the Tiktok short video platform. Jackie Chan, Cai Zhuoyen, Ren Xianqi and other stars collectively sang through the AI face changing special effect, and only one photo was needed to generate a dynamic video. Some netizens used this technology to make funny videos of Warren Buffett, Musk, Lei Jun and other well-known Chinese and foreign tycoons "Ma Ant Ya Hey" together, which set off a network frenzy in the process of viral transmission. Behind this online frenzy lies the precarious situation of personal privacy and information security under deep forgery. Three years later, AI is once again sweeping the internet square to revive deceased celebrities, who appear in the public eye in the form of dynamic short videos. The purpose of this behavior is to bounce back and forth between remembrance and consumption, and public opinion is fermenting. We are increasingly seeing that as artificial intelligence technology spills out of the laboratory at an unexpected scale and speed and penetrates into the digital life of the public, the public resources relinquish their data rights and also effortlessly hand over their privacy rights.
The problems and challenges brought by the combination of artificial intelligence technology and short videos as a digital product are multifaceted. For example, challenges in content creation. The content generation function of artificial intelligence technology has achieved creative substitution, which will to some extent consume human creativity. The process of technology liberating humanity is also a process of inertia recovery, so tools can extend human organs and also wear them out. At the same time, the consumption of human creativity also lies in the profit seeking mechanism of the short video market itself. As the short video market increasingly demands the scale and volume of content, and artificial intelligence technology becomes a common tool in short video creation, this environment is bound to gradually dilute original content, leading to a decline in originality. In addition, when the demand for content is closed to market trends, the commercialization within it will also to some extent erode the artistic and aesthetic characteristics of the creation itself.
The artificial intelligence technology mentioned earlier can help distinguish the authenticity of short videos, combat pirated content, and at the same time, it also means that this technology itself breeds the possibility of falsehood. The challenges brought by artificial intelligence technology are not only in terms of creativity, but also in terms of management. Artificial intelligence technology has a significant characteristic of confusing fake with real. As shown in the previous two cases, many short videos can use artificial intelligence technology to create false content, providing opportunities for fraud, privacy infringement, piracy, and plagiarism. In today's online society, information content is more diverse and information flow is more free. This also means that information can be collected, utilized, and resold. As the boundary between personal privacy information and personal public information becomes increasingly blurred, the abuse of artificial intelligence technology in short video creation also promotes the possibility of technology backlash against human beings.
Content is king, originally the survival rule in the context of new media. The emergence of artificial intelligence technology not only constantly challenges this theorem, but also purifies it. The emergence of the AI era has added another premise to the notion that "content is king" - content works that are full of human creativity, imagination, and emotions. Perhaps this is the future of content creation. (The author is Chen Jinxuan, a professor at Sichuan University of Media and Communications, Vice Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Higher Education Application Talent Training Guidance Committee, and member of the Science and Technology Strategy Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Radio and Television Bureau)
