These were questions I asked myself immediately, after I saw a number of promotional videos, or what we call “promos,” that were made with artificial intelligence, unusually. In many cases, it relies on human presence and human feelings that actually make you ask what it hides behind it.
It wasn't one clip. Over the course of days, I saw a number of them promoting a television program, a documentary, or a song, to the point that I would pass by them without caring about what they were promoting, just because I saw virtual people and heard voices and laughter that did not seem real.
It reminded me, in a strange way, of what had happened with previous visual revolutions. I went back to the early 2000s, when cartoons and animation opened new doors for song and video clip makers.
But there is a difference between technology astonishing you and making you want to follow what is in front of you. A few days ago, I sat down with a number of friends, and we found ourselves talking about the increasing spread of “promos” made with artificial intelligence. Some of them agreed with me: these passages, in their opinion, seem so artificial that they do not arouse any feeling, and therefore they are easy to skip.
In an industry that relies largely on grabbing attention within seconds, the promo seems one of the most sensitive places to test this technology. Success, in the world of television, is not measured only by the quality of the image or the speed of production, but rather by what those seconds leave in the mind of the viewer.
Dr. Salim Sharif, professor of media psychology, believes that the ability of a promo made with artificial intelligence to attract viewers cannot be reduced to visual dazzle, as, in his opinion, humans remain searching for authenticity and the human touch even amid the torrent of content produced by the machine.
Sharif told the BBC that “man by nature always searches for originality,” noting that “the brain is able to distinguish between work that carries effort, creativity, and human experience, and an industrial product.”
On the other hand, Sherif believes that artificial intelligence has an exceptional ability to create scenes and events that are difficult for a director to implement, even with the capabilities of the largest studios. This ability gives the promo a powerful tool for arousing curiosity.
For Mahmoud Gomaa, director and producer of promotional advertisements, making a promo begins with the idea, before the camera, instrument, or any of the implementation elements. Jumaa told the BBC that the question he asks at the beginning is: “What do I want to say? What feeling do I want to convey to the viewer?”
Jumaa believes that artificial intelligence has not changed this basis, but it has “greatly expanded the scope of implementation,” as it has become possible to experiment with ideas and scenes whose implementation previously required great production capabilities.
Jumaa asserts that “it is the idea that determines the tool, not the other way around.” He adds that the power of a promo may sometimes lie in “a look, a moment of silence, a hesitation in the sound, or even an extra second” before moving on to the next shot, because “artificial intelligence can simulate the form of a feeling, but it is the human being who gives this feeling its meaning.”
The machine may succeed in capturing the viewer's eye, but to win him over it requires more than dazzling: an idea that arouses his curiosity, a feeling that leaves an impact, and a story that makes him want to stay. While the capabilities of artificial intelligence to create images expand, it is still humans who decide whether that image is worth seeing.
