Blog Post 2: Google Puts Its Popular AI Video Generator Into YouTube Shorts
Published on:
My reaction to a New York Times article on Google’s new A.I video generator ‘Veo 3’ and how it is spreading into short form content.
Case Study reading:
Google Puts Its Popular AI Video Generator Into YouTube Shorts
Discussion
I chose to talk about this article because I have been noticing a lot more generative A.I in my instagram, and youtube short feed. The addition of this content will introduce cool and inspiring content, but also will introduce ethical concerns like misinformation. From what I have seen, they are not that impressive typically, but every now and then I see one that I almost perceive as real. I am sure there have been ones that I passed as real.
The article claims that Youtube is entering an AI era, which will completely transform the landscape of the platform. There will be more exciting tools and possibilities with content creation. The points for this article is that introduction of AI to specifically Youtube shorts increases creativity and accessibility for new creators. I have seen some interesting use cases of AI in shorts with disturbing horror and fun edits of fictonal night clubs. However it also risks oversaturating the platform with low quality slop content. It also may spread misinformation and blur the line between human and AI creation. This has already resulted in misinformation with Deepfakes of the presidents saying things they had never said. This lowers trust even more in the current media landscape.
A rebuttal to these points would be that It is just another new thing that is being brought into the media landscape, like how short formed content was introduced not too long ago. Content will still be relatively the same, with the addition of AI content. While Veo 3 lowers the barrier of entry for content creation on social media, it still takes skill to create prompts that actually work and look good. To combat misinformation media companies will, and have started to include/require community notes about AI on these posts to promote accurate AI literacy and transparency. The lower quality content will be filtered out like the algorithms always have. Generative AI like Veo 3 are tools that increase peoples ability to create interest content while keeping quality in check through platform regulation.
A CEO of google mentioned that Veo has shown peoples creativity. “People’s imaginations on the internet are pretty unlimited” (Eli Collins). One fallacy of the article is that it claims that Generative AI is creative process, yet it is all math and has processes, that can be replicated, and it also steals data and art from people. So in a way it is stealing creativity not producing it. Also, simply creating prompts does not require much thought or creativity.
In conclusion, I believe that AI in short formed content on Youtube is cool and will allow for more creative avenues as long as Youtube, and Veo 3 implement polices and features to show which posts are AI, and what is and is not allowed. There should be water marks on AI content, a toggle that lets users filter between AI and human content, and it should required creators to note when they use AI in their videos. AI literacy will become important, and people should be educated by the AI companies that create these tools, with guide books and notes that come with them.
Reflection
Reading and thinking through this article made me more open to AI in short formed content. If you think about it, theses posts are just another type of content that will bring with it new discrepancies and challenges for the Youtube, and Google team to solve. Discrepancies like how real the videos seem and how it can be misinformation, hallucinations, and AI biases. AI biases can be stereotypical and racist, with examples like asking for a street in India, and the AI gives you a overrun dirty street. These challenges if not solved can effect the world and our society, with validating dangerous beliefs and being offensive.