Sharing AI videos is like telling people about your dreams
Or how you should stop jerking off
It pains me to say it, but AI videos are good now. Well, by “good” I mean that they now look like actually videos rather than something freaky and nightmarish. In a small way, I sorta miss those days. They were at least interesting, which is more I can say for what’s happening now.
The rise of the Actually, This Looks Okay AI video kickstarted a new era where the world’s most unimaginative people currently believe themselves capable of creating art and are hungry to share them social media.
As ever, I have a theory: sharing an AI-generated video you “made” is about as interesting as telling people your dreams. It’s a crime, it’s unbecoming, and it’s akin to public masturbation.
The whole thing was kicked off by the launch of Seedance 2.0. This new model is surprisingly capable of deep levels of copyright infringement and the imagination-less have pished that to the limit. Sometimes it’s people bragging about their “original” movie that’s somehow worse than just not making anything at all, but often these sexless losers are compelled to make two pop culture figures fight. It always seems to be fighting. Like the Predator or the Terminator. Or Dwight and Michael Scott from The Office. Or, the most famous of these situations, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt:
Sidenote: It appears that this fight wasn’t even entirely AI generated, and the creators had actors fight in front of a green screen before overlaying the faces of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
One trend I’ve noticed in particular is the sense of pride the “creators” of these videos have, the idea they’ve created something valuable. It’s weird to watch. It couldn’t be clearer that the only way any of these videos exist is because someone else went to all the effort of actually creating these characters and familiar scenes before AI just smushed them together.
Bragging about creating this is like me buying a Hemingway novel, crossing out his name, putting mine on top, and telling people I redefined modern literature.
And the fighting. My god, all these videos seem to show people fighting. It’s like bad improv, like watching people play with action figures. Except… maybe it isn’t. I’d probably prefer to watch that. Bringing two inanimate objects to life suggests a level of creativity and playfulness that these AI-developed scenes simply don’t have.
No, when you get down to it, the closest thing to posting an AI-generated video online is forcing people to listen to your dreams.
To the dreamer these are vivid experiences, but for the listener they’re pointless, merely a self-absorbed monologue. When you’re talking about your dreams you’re not engaging in any dialogue, it’s entirely self-focused with zero chance for the other person to get involved.
It’s the same masturbatory action as sharing an AI video you generated.
What connects a good story and piece of art is how it draws you in. It’s about transporting you to situations, building a scene that feels real, and having respect for the receiver. These new type of AI-generated videos have none of that, they’re a series of disconnected images with nothing deeper going on below the surface.
I’m not saying that AI won’t improve filmmaking (think of digitally creating huge crowds or making sets look more realistic), but the technology will be used as a tool, not the end product. There simply won’t be an entirely generated movie because it’ll look like trash, be pointless, and lack the connection to the audience that all good art needs.
Sharing AI-generated videos is just publicly jerking off. You might enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean anyone else wants to watch.