AI Apps: Video Generation

In addition to generating text and images, artificial intelligence supports the video production process in a number of ways. Though the freemium and paid license models of these products can make them less accessible than other free artificial intelligence tools, they offer timesaving solutions to faculty who do not wish to appear on camera but want to produce multimedia content for their courses. Moreover, these tools offer functionality to make minor corrections to video and audio content such as altering a presenter’s eye contact and removing background objects.

Artificial intelligence can support the following multimedia production processes:

• Generate short talking head videos: By inputting a script, artificial intelligence can generate an AI Avatar or even a “digital twin” of yourself delivering the supplied script. Many details of the AI Avatar’s facial features and environment can be customized to your preference. While realism may vary, and licenses for these tools impose limitations on the number of minutes worth of video you can generate per year, this offers an alternative to faculty who do not wish to appear on camera to deliver video lecture content. While exploring this option, consider the impact the use of AI can have on student engagement, which is expanded upon in greater detail below.
• Support simple video correction capabilities: Using artificial intelligence, you can make simple fixes to the presenter and their background, such as eye contact with the camera, removing background objects, and more.
• Support simple audio enhancement and correction capabilities: The use of artificial intelligence in audio correction can enhance content delivery and clarity by filtering and removing background noise, adjusting the pitch and tone of your speaking voice, removing filler words, and more.

Pedagogical Applications

Consider the following use cases of video generative artificial intelligence in the classroom:

• Create custom, or edit existing, video lectures.
  • Create customized video lectures or clean up videos you’ve recorded yourself with AI video tools. Consider using AI to enhance your lecture content as well by incorporating AI generated content of a historical event, geographic location, or scenario as it relates to your content.
• Create realistic case study scenarios.
  • Generate a realistic scenario students can analyze as part of a case study assignment. Utilize AI-generated videos to create a scene incorporating multiple perspectives and introducing variables students must navigate in the exercise.
• Enhance video accessibility.
  • Add captioning, generate transcripts, and polish audio for your videos using AI video tools.

Products

Explore the table below to compare a few of the most popular AI video generators/editors available:

Considerations

While the use of artificial intelligence to generate and edit videos offers a suite of worthwhile potential to explore, consider the following:

• Financial barriers for students and faculty: Asking students to leverage these tools may impose financial constraints since none are free. If you plan to incorporate these tools into your curriculum, ensure you are doing so in a thoughtful and meaningful way which aligns with course learning outcomes.
• The impact of AI Avatar use on student engagement: It is worth noting that the use of these tools can have either positive or negative impact on student engagement depending on the quality and realism of the AI-generated content. If students are able to discern the use of AI, which is likely, this may hurt student engagement compared to video recorded by a human instructor. There is risk involved in substituting instructor presence with an AI Avatar instead of relying on a faculty member to deliver content. Consider that when content is delivered through an AI avatar, students may still crave a human connection in their learning and feel that an avatar may not be sufficient to deliver all content within a course (Vallis et al., 2023). Rather than relying on these technologies, use these tools as a time-saving measure sparingly and as needed, especially since the licensing models limit the amount of content that can be generated.
• Limited output, even with a paid license: Most of these tools impose restrictions on the number of minutes worth of video you can produce per year. For example, Synthesia’s personal license limits users to 120 minutes of video per year. This therefore requires some planning and forethought on how to allocate the relatively limited amount of usage. Collaborate with an instructional designer to decide where this technology could most effectively be utilized in your course.