Instagram Previews Coming AI Video Elements

Meta’s super keen to make AI a more prominent part of the social media experience, whether you like it or not, and along that line, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has today provided a glimpse of some coming video AI elements coming to IG.

Yes, soon, via an integration with Meta’s Movie Gen engine, Instagram users will be able to create wholesale edits of their video clips in-stream, switching to different backgrounds, outfits, representations, Muppet versions of themselves, etc.

Which is interesting, for sure, and could lead to some new creative trends. But it also feels like a step away from the “social” aspect of social media, in terms of actual, human connection and shared experiences.

Because these won’t be representative of your lived experiences. AI depictions, which Meta keeps pushing in-stream, are just made up images and video, which have little to do with your own life, or creativity. Video editing feels a little more aligned, in that it will still involve your own captured content, and I do see how this could be used to crate more compelling clips, with visual storytelling elements and enhancements that could assist in building your post.

But AI image generation, less so.

AI image generation seems like an interesting novelty, but I don’t see it being a complementary element, in most cases, within social media connection. Like, sure, you can generate an image of an alien, but that doesn’t represent anything real, and sure, you can generate an image of a beach you want to go to, but that’s not as good as a real image from a real thing that you did.

Meta’s AI video tools do provide enhancement, and will lead to new creative forms within the app, and you can imagine that some people will find these hugely valuable.

But still, storytelling remains key, and human connection is critical. Social media is, at heart, social, and without that core connective aspect, it’s just short-form entertainment, with images and videos flashing into our brains, and confusing our internal circuits.

Which is what’s going to happen with gen AI anyway, as they enable strange, surreal, impossible creations that mess with our minds. Some weirdness is inevitable, but without a central thread, a story that links things together, a narrative that we can relate to. Without that, you’re just generating things for the sake of it.

And that will also happen, as people experiment with these new options, but the real sustaining value of such creations will lie in purpose, and using them to enhance the communication a human story.

Get the story right, and these could be great complementary features. Otherwise, they’re just novelties that won’t resonate.