Confession time: I built an AI system that isn't perfect 🫣
Lemme explain...
Editing my videos have been costing me 2-4 hours every week.
So I told myself I gotta build an AI system to do that part for me. Not the whole thing though... and you'll see why in a minute.
I'm sure you've got your own version of what editing is for me...
Tasks that you know are not your zone of genius. They're not something you particularly enjoy either...
But you do them anyway even if you don't feel like it.
Here's what I had to tell myself when I was building my AI Video Editor: the 1st video ain't gonna be perfect.
It's a shitty first draft.
I mean, if you think about it...
The first pass from any editor, human or AI, is a rough draft. The chances of getting the perfect version the first time is super slim.
The system I built is an AI augmented workflow, which means a human is involved in the process.
And that's by design.
I guide the visual direction. AI (in this case, Codex) implements it for me.
Because when I looked at my editing time, a huge amount is spent on polishing the video up. Adding overlays, chapter markers, making everything branded, the whole shebang.
Now, my AI video editor takes care of that branded polish.
If you have a task or activity that's eating your whole afternoon, here's how you can apply this process:
Name the one production task you're doing by hand that isn't your zone of genius. Editing your own clips. Formatting your own workbook. Building your own slides.
Before you ask any AI tool to do that task, give it your actual brand rules first. Fonts, colors, tone, what you never want it to do. It needs a reference to work from.
Test it on one real file. Expect it to be rough. Fix what's wrong, then run it again.
Remember, the system doesn't need to be perfect the first time.
It just needs to work.
Ship the shitty first draft, then make it less shitty over time.
If you're curious, here's the video where I walked you through building my AI Video Editor.
And I used that same editor for the first time on the video I filmed about it.
Which means the video walking you through the build is also the build's first real test. 😉