Introducing a test of Generative AI Stock Video items on Elements and Market

Envato Announcements
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If you have been following the developments in Generative AI, you will know that the tools and capabilities for image and video creation are evolving at an incredibly rapid pace. Today we’re announcing the newest addition to our Stock Video category, as we begin a trial of items created by Envato using Generative AI tools.

We understand that AI-generated content is a hot topic, and that our current policies still prevent Authors from selling entirely AI-generated content on either Elements or Market. This post aims to provide you with more information about what we’re doing, why we are doing it, and what the next steps will be.

What’s changing?

During March, we will begin trialling an initial selection of AI-generated Stock Video content on Elements, from an account called EnvatoLabs. These items have been created by Envato, using third-party tools that have not been trained on Envato Author Content.

This is the first phase in this process, allowing us to test customer demand, and also test a process for creating high-quality video items in a controlled/managed manner. If the trial is successful, we will gradually roll out a process for Authors to also begin submitting Gen-AI Stock Video content.

FAQs

Why is Phase 1 restricted to Envato-created content?
There are many new tools available for generating both images and video, and many of these do not produce output at a quality level that we can accept on Elements. During the first phase, we are using content that has been created by Envato, so we have full visibility over all stages in the item creation process.

How is Envato creating this content?
Our team is currently experimenting with tools that can create sufficiently high-quality output, while also having commercial usage rights for the AI-generated items. We note that the tools currently available for this task are changing rapidly.

Are you using Envato Author content to create these videos?
No. We have not used any Envato Author content in the creation of these items.

When can Authors start submitting GenAI video content?
We don’t have a launch date yet for the second phase of this test. We’ll be closely monitoring customer demand for the new Stock Video content, in order to determine whether it is worth expanding this part of the video content library. If we launch into Phase 2, we anticipate that this would be a gradual rollout to Authors.

Will this content live in a new sub-category?
For now, the new content will simply be included in the Stock Footage category, identified with “Generative AI” in the tags and description of each item. We may create a new Gen-AI Video sub-category and move this content across in future, depending on the outcome of this trial.

If you have any questions about the introduction of Generative AI Stock Video content to Elements and VideoHive, please ask them in this thread.

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I don’t think it’s good news for Video/Image authors.

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@ki-themes The industry landscape is definitely changing, but I don’t think it’s all over just yet.

Good generative stock video needs a combination of things: beyond the established technical and quality aspects, and the requirement for commercial usage rights, there’s still a lot of work and skill required to use those tools well.

We’re trying to pilot a process for creating saleable generative AI stock video, using an evolving set of tools to do so. If there is customer demand for clips made in this style, then it opens up another set of tools and methods that authors will be able to use in future.

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Hi Ben,
thanks for the announcement!

If nowadays the tools available to the masses to produce AI Videos do not provide a decent output to be accepted on Elements, and EnvatoLabs is already a few steps ahead and uses a machine already trained (even though I find it really hard to believe that it’s not been trained with our items), how can we compete with EnvatoLabs account?
Will you provide us some kind of tools that we can use to produce content or it’s up to us to learn the workflow with external resources?

In the end, what are the advantages of all this for us authors?

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This tool is not for Envato authors; it is of no use to them. This tool for end users and is intended to replace authors at some point.
However i wonder how about copyright. AI trained from all internet without permission, such generated content cannot be copyrighted and used for commercial purposes.

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With this step Envato is saying - we don’t need you anymore (authors). Humans are not welcome anymore.

I am done with Envato - will not upload anymore new items.

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In effect, it’s Envato competing with its own author base, right?

It certainly seems like the first step towards eliminating those pesky authors and their payouts.

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Hi all. I appreciate your concerns - GenAI developments over the last 12 months have moved at an incredible speed, disrupting almost every industry.

@Rickyloca We’re using a combination of different 3rd-party tools for the test, as there’s currently no single tool that’s fit for purpose. The range of tools mean that it’s very easy to quickly generate a large volume of very low-quality content, and many of the content creation tools don’t have appropriate commercial usage rights. By running the pilot with content created in-house, we can have full visibility over all of the tools and methods used to create each item, as we develop a workflow that can produce good quality content.

That’s the main concern, before we begin allowing Author submissions of GenAI content. If we removed all submission restrictions tomorrow, there’s a risk that our Video review queues would quickly be swamped with low-grade AI clips, and another risk that item submissions could have been generated by tools that don’t give appropriate commercial usage rights.

To your question about what advantages does this lead to for the authors, we want to understand two things from this test:

  • What kind of customer demand is there for this type of content?
  • How can it be created in a way that ensures both quality and commercial requirements are met?

If the demand is there, the next stage is likely to involve starting to work with Authors to help them learn the workflow. If we can eventually provide you with access to content creation tools as well, that would be great - but the first steps are more likely to involve working with a selection of external resources.

Having access to a GenAI tool doesn’t make someone a videographer, any more than having a copy of After Effects makes them a motion graphics designer. The tools are rapidly getting better and easier to use, but there’s still a lot of potential for professional designers to get far better results from them than an average customer. Stock assets are designed to save the customer the time and effort needed to get great results quickly, and we think that GenAI tools are going to be an important addition to the workflow of Authors in the future.

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As some others have stated, I highly doubt the focus of this addition is to help Authors themselves. The main focus will always be how to profit off consumers (and Authors) to help build Envato more income. Since AI is a hot topic (and again rapidly changing) it makes sense that they would want to monetize it somehow. So to claim this is primarily to focus on helping Authors I don’t really buy myself. I just do music here, kinda, so perhaps I’m wrong. Who knows.

I will suggest however, not including any AI created items within the main “stock footage” area. I feel this is misleading. It’s honestly annoying to scroll through stock footage and find 3D animated clips and other things that aren’t really what people are looking for as it is. I think it would be better to split it. The Marketplace is already being obliterated from the inside, so it’s probably best to steer carefully through the controversial waters of AI. (possibly bitterness on my part for seeing how the Marketplace is treated these days, but I’m also not 100% wrong either).

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Thanks for informing us about the latest development @BenLeong it would be interesting to see if Envato includes us in the AI process as almost all the other agencies are trying to exclude us. We can see this through the development of SS and Getty who only makes AI content available through their generator. Adobe has taken a very inclusive approach thus far in allowing authors to create and sell through their portal. I will be keeping my eye open for latest development. Regards Rushay

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Quite surprised none of them are selling… they’ve been produced in the most popular resolution, and at the most common aspect ratio, you’ve kept the bitrate super low for convenience, not overcomplicated things with too many of those pesky keywords, avoided the common mistake of producing stock videos over 4 seconds long, and the prices are super-competitive. It’s a mystery?!

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Nowadays ‘Artificial Content Intelligence’ = ‘Anonymous Copyright Infringement’ in more or less percentage terms. Most copyright experts agree that for a really legal “Fair Use Policy” every ‘Artificial Content Creation’ must have an available ‘identification links’ with all the ‘movie credits’ to all the original visual art, music, text, science works used by ‘AI’ app developers in every ‘artificial mutation masterpiece’, and all the related profits must be reasonably shared with the authors or other legal copyright holders as well, excluding only the ‘inspirational’ or ‘interpretational’ old classics and confirmed public domain items, a-prioratus… Do you and Envato agree?

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BTW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ59g4PV1AE

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While I think the question about copyright is valid, I think this linked video is neither very good researched nor unbiased.

The way he describes how AI works is afaik just plain wrong.

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It seems like it has already started.
Search for Background by newest sort in Videohive.
Many background videos created solely with AI(no edit) have already begun to appear on the market.

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Hi all! The first items have begun to appear on Elements via the EnvatoLabs account.

We’re focusing on the Elements customer response to the items in this test, but (as with any other Stock Video items) these clips follow the current pathway of publishing on VideoHive, and then onto the Elements platform.

If you’re interested in taking a look through them, you can see that the current generation of tools used to create these have limitations around their output: for example, animation quality drops off significantly in any longer clips, and there’s not much flexibility around bitrate and resolution. This style of video isn’t about to replace smooth, long-duration 4K clips, but it can still address other customer uses.

There are only a handful of clips up at the moment (53 at time of posting), with the rest of the testing batch on the way over the next few days. We’ll be assessing the performance of this batch over the next few months.

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And this is the best AI can do? If all authors are allowed to post such items, the site will quickly turn into a trash heap. So at the moment, Envato’s policy regarding AI content looks balanced, in my opinion.

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516 videos in the last 7 days, 73+ videos per day :confused:

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It’s a staggered upload, we’re not creating 73 videos a day :grin:

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More? :slight_smile: