One of the most common asks is the question, Can ChatGPT Watch Videos? The answer is a little more nuanced, but the direct answer is no. The version of ChatGPT that you use is a large language model (LLM). ChatGPT processes and generates text and, unlike you, does not have physical attributes of eyes, a screen, or the capability of perceiving visual and auditory information. It does not have the ability to simply click a link, watch a Youtube video, and understand the story. That said, the interaction of AI and video content is diverse, and getting more diverse by the day, and the story is a little more nuanced.
How ChatGPT “Sees” The World: Text-Only Processing?
To understand how ChatGPT does not watch videos, we have to understand the architecture of ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a model of machine intelligence that is trained on gigantic set of text and codes and learns the complexes of different nodes. For ChatGPT, the world is words.
No Sensory Input: It does not have modules specific to computer vision (i.e. understanding images) or audio processing. It cannot receive pixel information or sound waves.
Text in, Text out: Its operation is purely textual. You supply text prompts, and it predicts and generates correspond textual responses.
This basic setup indicates any engagement with a video must be rendered in the form of text.
Bridging the Gap: How Video Information Reaches AI?
ChatGPT cannot “watch” a video; however, there are ways for video content to be used by AI systems. These approaches depend on the conversion of non-text data to a form that an LLM (afterwards, for Large Language Model) is designed to process.
The Role of Transcripts and Captions
The simplest method involves tapping into a video’s text-based twin.
Pre-existing Captions: Many videos include SRT or VTT caption files. This text can be copied and pasted into ChatGPT.
AI-Powered Transcription Tools: Tools such as Otter.ai, Rev or even OpenAI’s own Whisper offer the functionality of transcribing unaudible audio in a video to text form.
The Process: You would use a different tool to create a transcript, and then supply that transcript to ChatGPT with prompts such as “Summarize the key points from this transcript,” or “Formulate five questions based on this lecture.”
Multimodal AI Models: The Next Frontier
The field is advancing rapidly with the implementation of Multimodal AI. These are models designed to work with various forms of data.
GPT-4V (Vision): As part of the latest update in OpenAI, the company has adopted an improved version of GPT-4 that can read images. This model can take in visual inputs and respond queries in relation to the images.
The Video Limitation: Despite the latest update, it is still the case that AI is limited to still images. When it comes to videos, the AI can only analyze a collection of keyframes (frames that are extracted from the video).
Analysis, Not Watching: to reiterate, this is not “watching” in the sense of a video, temporally. It is analyzing still frames as well as the text and reasoning that goes with them.
Specialized Video Analysis Platforms
Newer platforms are emerging that combine these technologies into a seamless workflow.
These tools use speech-to-text for audio, computer vision for keyframes, and an LLM to synthesize the information.
This is the closest we have to, “can ChatGPT analyze videos?” and often involves a more advanced interface rather than the typical ChatGPT interface to get the most complete and uninterrupted response when asking, “What was the demo product shown at the 2:15 mark?” or “List all the steps shown in the DIY tutorial.
Practical Applications: What You Can Do Today?
So, how can you leverage AI for video content right now? Here is a practical workflow.
Extract the Audio from Video Content
Transcribe the audio from the video content manually or using software.
Provide Socumentation
While using the text in Chat GPT, give the required context.
Essentially, the text might look something like this;
This includes a conversation in a video demonstrating how to bake muffins using blueberries.
This text narrates a smartphone review from the latest technology.
Ask Chat GPT Pointed Questions
Provide the AI with specific instructions that relate back to the content.
List the ingredients, if any, with the corresponding quantities in the video content. Also identify the actions related to the ingredients.
Was there any review that contained the main 3 advantages and the other 3 disadvantages?
Can you summarize the instructions provided in the video text into points?
Limitations and Cautions
Engaged Documentations; Despite the workarounds, there are still some key limitations that must be considered.
Visual Context Loss: No transcript can explain visual humor, graphs, subtitled text, gestures, or body movements. Unless someone describes it.
Lost Timing: LLMs by themselves do not usually work well in the reconstruction of events in the order they were presented.
Accuracy: Everything described above relies heavily on the quality of the transcription. If audio quality or specific vocabulary were to be an issue, the AI would likely escalate the problem in the event that the audio quality was poor.
The Future of AI and Video Interaction
The path ahead is obvious. Next-generation AI models will be inherently multimodal and purpose-built to handle video, audio, and text simultaneously.
Anticipate a shift from “Can ChatGPT analyze videos?” to “How smartly can this AI dissect a video?”
Look forward to features including a video’s real-time stream analysis, emotional tone nuances, and complex descriptions of movements and patterns.
FAQs
Am I able to paste a link to a YouTube or other video for ChatGPT to summarize?
No. If you’re using a standard ChatGPT interface, it cannot summarize videos. You must first obtain a video transcript using a different tool, then paste the ChatGPT text generator.
Are there any AI video watch tools that can analyze a video for me?
Yes. Some of the visualization tools on the market today are VideoHighlight, Eightify, and other tools that have combined GPT-4V to analyze still key frames and the audio in order to summarize and answer certain content questions.
If I have a video transcript, is that the same as ChatGPT having watched the video?
No, because a video transcript is only a portion of the video, in this case the audio portion, and therefore the any visual elements, text, diagrams, images, or other representations are not included in that transcript unless they are described in the audio.
Does ChatGPT have any ability to analyze images or screenshots?
If you’re using ChatGPT-4V, a ChatGPT version that has vision capabilities, he or she can analyze images and graphical illustrations and answer contextual questions about them. This is a workaround to gain some understanding of the content of a video.
What is the most accurate way to get AI to comprehend the content of a video today?
The most accurate way to get AI to understand content in a video is to obtain a high-quality, timestamped transcript of the video in conjunction with relevant screenshots for important visual moments and then submit that to a high-performing or multimodal AI model with the appropriate and clear query.