The ultimate AI video jargon buster: Your guide to getting started

Jumping into the world of AI-powered video production? Great move. But if all the confusing tech talk has you scratching your head, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

This guide will break down the key terms you need to know and have you chatting confidently about AI video production in no time.

How to dip your toes into AI video

1. Know your basics: AI in video isn’t about robots taking over Hollywood. It’s about smart tools that can save you from hours of tedious editing, inspire fresh creativity, and level up your videos.
2. Figure out what you actually need: are you looking to automate editing? Enhance visual effects? Improve audience targeting? Knowing your goals will help you choose the right AI tools.
3. Start small: pick one or two AI tools to test out and gradually integrate more as you get comfy.
4. Keep learning: AI tech is evolving quickly. Stay curious and keep up an eye on what’s new to stay ahead.

Now, let’s break down the jargon.

The 50 AI video terms you need to know

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI): computer systems able to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.
2. Audio-to-animation: AI that can generate animated lip movements from audio input.
3. Auto-colourisation: AI that can add colour to black and white footage automatically.
4. Auto-subtitling: AI that can automatically generate and sync subtitles to video.
5. Automated closed captioning: AI that can generate accurate closed captions for video content.
6. Automated storyboarding: AI tools that can generate storyboards from scripts or shot lists.
7. Automated video editing: AI-powered tools that can assemble rough cuts of video footage.
8. Chroma Keying AI: advanced green screen technology powered by AI for more accurate results.
9. Colour grading AI: AI tools that can automatically adjust colour and tone in video footage.
10. Computer vision: an AI’s ability to analyse and understand visual information from the world.
11. Content-aware fill: AI technology that can remove unwanted elements from video footage.
12. Content-based video retrieval: AI systems that can search and retrieve videos based on their visual content.
13. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN): A type of neural network particularly effective for image and video analysis.
14. Deep learning: a type of machine learning inspired by the human brain’s neural networks.
15. Deepfake: AI-generated videos where a person’s face or likeness is replaced with someone else’s.
16. Emotion recognition: AI technology that can identify human emotions in video footage.
17. Facial recognition: AI’s ability to identify or verify a person from a digital image or video.
18. GAN (Generative Adversarial Network): an AI system where two neural networks compete to create realistic fake data.
19. Gaze tracking: AI that can detect and analyse where a person is looking in a video.
20. Generative AI: AI systems that can create new content, including images, video, and audio.
21. Lip sync AI: technology that matches lip movements to dubbed audio.
22. LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory): a type of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) capable of learning long-term dependencies, useful in video analysis.
23. Machine Learning (ML): a subset of AI where systems improve their performance with experience.
24. Motion tracking: AI that follows the movement of objects in video for effects or stabilisation.
25. Natural Language Processing (NLP): AI’s capability to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
26. Neural Network: a computer system modelled on the human brain and nervous system.
27. Noise reduction: AI algorithms that can remove visual noise from video footage.
28. Object recognition: AI that can identify and locate objects in an image or video.
29. Optical flow: an AI technique for detecting motion between video frames.
30. Pose estimation: AI’s ability to detect human figures in images and video and predict their pose.
31. Predictive analytics: using AI to forecast future trends based on historical data.
32. Recurrent Neural Network (RNN): neural network designed to recognise patterns in sequences of data, like video frames.
33. Rotoscoping AI: the automated process of tracing over footage, frame by frame, for special effects.
34. Scene understanding: AI’s ability to comprehend the content and context of a video scene.
35. Semantic segmentation: an AI process of partitioning a video frame into semantically meaningful parts.
36. Sentiment analysis: AI-powered assessment of the emotional tone behind words.
37. Smart cropping: AI that automatically adjusts video framing for different aspect ratios.
38. Style Transfer: an AI technique that can apply the artistic style of one image to another or to video.
39. Super resolution: an AI-powered technique to enhance the resolution and quality of video footage.
40. Synthetic media: any media created or modified by AI, including images, video, and audio.
41. Temporal anti-aliasing: AI-enhanced technique to reduce flickering and improve motion quality in video.
42. Transfer learning: using a pre-trained AI model as a starting point for a new task.
43. Video inpainting: AI technique to reconstruct missing or corrupted parts of video frames.
44. Video interpolation: AI technique to create new frames between existing ones for smoother video.
45. Video summarisation: AI that can create short summaries of longer video content.
46. Video upscaling: AI-powered technology that increases video resolution without loss of quality.
47. Video-to-Video Synthesis: AI that can generate video based on an input video, useful for creating variations.
48. Virtual cinematography: AI-assisted camera movements and framing in virtual environments.
49. Voice synthesis: AI technology that generates human-like speech.
50. Workflow automation: using AI to streamline and automate video production processes.

Ready to create AI videos?

Now you’ve got this knowledge, you’re ready to play around with creating AI videos. Remember, AI isn’t here to replace human creativity — it’s here to enhance it. AI handles the tedious parts, freeing us up to focus on the big ideas. And in a world where content is king, that’s a royal advantage.

Ready to take your video production to the next level with AI? We’re here to help. Get in touch to see how we can use the latest AI innovations in your video strategy.

Written by Grace Dunsby, Producer at Definition.