Nine music videos made with Human Intelligence

By now, most of the music video community has seen and reacted to the AI generated music video for Washed Out “The Hardest Part” directed by Paul Trillo. If you’re one of the few people to have avoided it, I encourage you to keep that streak alive.

Instead, you should watch these other music videos, that were made completely with Human Intelligence (HI). If you watch them all, you will feel every feeling and see every visual technique AI tried to mimic, without any of the hallucinations or motion sickness.

“The Hardest Part” opens on an impossibly long school bus full of teens with football helmet sized heads. If that sounds like something you’d like to see, then head to “Break Yourself” by Hook N Sling, directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and Nelson De Castro. This video includes an even cooler endless school bus gag, it features actual football helmets, and we’re 90% sure they used it to train the AI model for “The Hardest Part.”

Trillo used AI to generate nostalgic images of when you’re young and rebellious and your arms and legs are weirdly shaped. If you want those feelings without the VR sickness, check out Delta Spirit’s “California” music video, where director Abteen Bagheri, DP Isaac Bauman, and producer Chris Black cast actual rebellious teenagers to create that energy in real life.

And if you like your youth rebellion with higher stakes, try Flight Facilities “Clair De Lune” directed by Dave Ma. It has some unexpected moments, which is only possible through generating new idea and not repackaging old ones and calling it “learning.”

“The Hardest Part” attempts to recreate images of several key moments in a relationship, from high school sweethearts, to marriage and parenthood, all the way through the death of a partner. But AI images of a cemetery feel like a less effective way to illustrate the impact of a lifetime with someone than the storytelling techniques, cinematography decisions, and performance choices made in Arcade Fire “Afterlife” directed by Emily Kai Bock.

Maybe you don’t care about story and just wanna look at cool shit on your phone. Well you’re not going to get innovation from a technology that by design can only be derivative. Anything cool or inventive in filmmaking is going to be made by a person first. For example, Pharrell Williams “Cash In Cash Out” directed by François Rousselet. This video will love on as one of the coolest things ever made of all time.

Filmmaking has always been about making the impossible seem possible. And when you add some incredible human talent, a physical limitation, or a risk of personal injury it makes it even more. Like in Chet Faker “Gold” directed by Hiro Murai, where you get all of that.

One of the big issues in AI is hallucinations, aka when shit is so unintentionally fucked up that it breaks the illusion. We can try to embrace those imperfections for creative effect, but there are way more precise tools to do that right now. Tools that are less harmful to the environment, cooler to look at, and don’t requiring partnering with a weird AI company. For example, Red Hot Chili Peppers “Tippa My Tongue” directed by Malia James. Is this band 30 years past their prime? Yes! Do they look a little silly running around all jacked and neon? Yes! But part of being a human is aging and adapting to a life lived. It’s part of what makes this video amazing. That and the intentionally hallucinogenic effects that are entertaining, and intentionally, and don’t make you dizzy.

For readers that just really like the band Washed Out and love listening to their music along with a narrative music video, you can have that too. Their video for “Weightless” directed by David Altobelli has been described as elusive, gracious, dream-like, subtle, and profoundly moving. Which are feelings that are challenging to capture even when you put them in an AI prompt.

And finally, if you just wanna hope on the Paul Trillo hype train, then you have plenty of amazing work to choose from. Like the video he directed for “Heart Swing” by DJ Pone. It’s beautiful, technologically impressive, heartfelt, timeless, and has a way smaller carbon footprint than anything ever generated by AI.

What are your favorite videos made with Human Intelligence? Comment below and subscribe for more.