If you are concerned that FCP does not have AI Assistants . . . Don't bother!

To bring this back around to LLMs and FCP more directly, SpliceKit looks promising. https://github.com/elliotttate/SpliceKit/tree/v3.3.9

There are a few AI editors for FCP on the market already that interface with FCP. I've tried a few. Some work better than others. I am using one to do rough cuts of multicams, does a good job, and it is saving me tons of time. How you prompt is everything.

BenB wrote:

I produce my own show about dogs. There's lots of illustrations I am personally unable to do, b-roll I can't get on my own. So should I let the quality of my production suffer? Or should I use AI to give me the things it's great at doing, and up the quality of my show a bit? Should I NOT use it for rough edits so I can meet broadcast deadlines, only because AI is supposedly an evil sentient being?

I think part of the problem here is that the term "AI" means different things to different people. And it's a tool that can be used in many different ways.

BenB, I think your use of AI is perfectly fine. The way you use it, AI helps you produce good videos and meet broadcast deadlines. Meeting deadlines is a tall order some times. I had a sign in my old CMX suite back in the day which said:

• GOOD.
• FAST.
• CHEAP.
• Pick any two.

Working in a daily production scenario with broadcast deadlines is a whole different world from the casual YouTube producer, or someone just editing old family films. In the broadcast world, the pressure is always there, and the work has to be done - ON TIME! Been there and done that...many years ago.

If I had to meet deadlines in my work today, I might use AI in a different way. But for now, I'll use AI to make a still image for me here and there, but I'll do all the editing myself because it's fun, and I don't have any deadlines. ;-)

By the way BenB, I'd love to see one of your videos some day!

Ian, totally agree with you. I produce TV, which means deadlines. If AI can rough cut things for me, GREAT! That allows me to hit deadline that much faster. I mean, when you animate in Motion, you're not really cutting things out and doing stop motion on a workbench, are you?

Since I have skill and talent, I'm content with doing the work myself. I can't imagine anything I'd wish AI would handle. The media managing/importing/sorting/etc is not an issue at all. The most tedious part is delivering the voiceover, but I wouldn't want to use an AI voiceover because that takes the real person out of the equation and would significantly devalue my product. I can't imagine asking the AI to actually edit for me. That's the most fun part. I love being creative. Sure, if you have no talent it may help to make your videos approach "almost watchable" status, but you know what? I'm glad that everyone can't edit. If everyone is special, then no one is. It's a sad day when anyone can do anything, talent no longer has any meaning.

Brilliantly stated! BOOYAH! Thank you for saying it!

AI is flat out cheating and nobody knows what copyright material is being, basically, stolen because it doesn't create its own original material. And then there's tonight's news headlines that AI could kill all of us within the next decade. Why on earth would anyone "feed this monster"??

Well gee, if you want to create a fake A.I. movie of your favorite sports team winning a game, then you already lost.

I make tutorials with allot of special effects for highlighting important elements for the viewer to understand.

I actually enjoy using image masks, applying layers of filters, finding and combining audio samples to match the movements myself.

There is a tremendous pride I take in a job that took several months to complete.

A.I. Slop is artificial.

I completely agree with Joe Redifer and fox_m in this regard.

Cheers! 🥂

Smiliñ 😎 Brian | Community Volunteer

Joe Redifer wrote:

Since I have skill and talent, I'm content with doing the work myself. I can't imagine anything I'd wish AI would handle. The media managing/importing/sorting/etc is not an issue at all. The most tedious part is delivering the voiceover, but I wouldn't want to use an AI voiceover because that takes the real person out of the equation and would significantly devalue my product. I can't imagine asking the AI to actually edit for me. That's the most fun part. I love being creative. Sure, if you have no talent it may help to make your videos approach "almost watchable" status, but you know what? I'm glad that everyone can't edit. If everyone is special, then no one is. It's a sad day when anyone can do anything, talent no longer has any meaning.

I've stumbled across YouTube videos that use AI narration. I find I can't listen to them for more than about 30 seconds. Some may not mind, but I find it unpleasant.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

As for cheating . . . we are all cheating day in day out. Photographers and film-makers are using technical innovation to make life easier than reaching for a pencil, paintbrush and paint.

I believe that's a specious analogy. Photography is not a shortcut for painting. Photography and painting are two entirely separate art forms.

Artists didn't use paint originally because they wanted to paint per se. They wanted to create images of life around them and stones scraping the walls of caves and later on painting were the only means they had available.

And lots of artists still use paint. Or charcoal. Or carve in stone. Or weld metal.

With the advent of photography creating images of life became incredibly quicker but those who have the desire and time can still sit down with paint and brush if that's what their creative urges desire.

Guess you don't do much serious photography. While it may be quicker than painting the Sistine Chapel, it's not fast. It's about far more than just tapping the shutter button. Good photography takes as much talent as painting.

Do cameras allow you to produce quick slop? Sure. But don't compare that to the work of someone like Ansel Adams or Dorothea Lange or Annie Lebowitz.

Equating AI with cameras is just absurd.

AI is simply one step further along the road of making mundane, laborious tasks quicker and easier, freeing up everyone's time.

If you think creating art is a "mundane, laborious task," you're doing it wrong.

I believe countless lives were saved following the outbreak of Covid by using AI to create vaccines in record breaking short time spans and there are doubtless numerous other places where AI is helping humanity.

I think Katalin Kariko and all of the other scientists who actually created the technology and the vaccines would be insulted.

I produce TV, which means deadlines. If AI can rough cut things for me, GREAT!

I can certainly understand and appreciate what you do, BenB.

For me, it’s an enjoyable hobby where I enjoy tinkering with the controls to create special effects.

I also appreciate how Apple managed to offer integrated A.I. masking options into Final Cut Pro.

Cheers! 🥂

Smiliñ 😎 Brian | Community Volunteer

As for cheating . . . we are all cheating day in day out. Photographers and film-makers are using technical innovation to make life easier than reaching for a pencil, paintbrush and paint.

Well that's the thing, isn't it? We use things like Motion (or whatever) to animate things, but apps like Motion, Blender, etc are TOOLS used by an artist. AI is not a tool used by an artist, AI is the artist itself and you're commissioning it to do something. If it's not to your liking, you can re-prompt, but it'll never be exactly as you imagined, even if you're happy with the result. You are never the artist in that situation. I can't imagine anyone being proud of something created in AI with a prompt.

AI has already ruined the field of Graphic Design. There are countless companies out there who use AI for their graphics and ads these days. A lot of those people are already struggling for work because a cheap-to-use AI that probably trained on and stole the copyrighted works of many said artists.

Another thing that AI pundits don't consider, is that it's raising the cost of pretty much EVERY kind of electronics. RAM, SSD, and even HDD prices are going through the roof due to the demands for them by AI datacenters. Notice that old iPhone prices are going UP instead of down like they usually do. I'm sure you don't care though... that's everyone else's problem, right? I really do hope that AI is a bubble that bursts, sooner than later. That way prices can equalize. AI would still be there, but used for more practical things and it could stop being the latest buzzword.