AI is transforming how we create content, but there’s also a growing problem: AI slop. It’s the flood of auto-generated videos, images, and text that takes up space without adding value; and we’re seeing it everywhere. So how do you use AI to enhance your work without the noise?  

Host Matt Pierce introduces TechSmith’s HUMAN Framework, a practical approach to keeping the human element at the center of AI-assisted content creation.  

We hear why your expertise and lived experience gives you access to nuance that AI can’t replicate, how authenticity has become currency in content creation, and why treating AI as a thought partner rather than a replacement leads to better outcomes.  

Matt also shares TechSmith’s philosophy on AI integration, including their approach to control and customization in tools like Camtasia AI. While AI is the worst it's ever going to be (meaning it will only get better), the choices we make now about how we use it will determine whether we're creating valuable content or just more noise. 

Learning points from the episode include: 

• 00:00 - 02:01 What AI slop is and why being able to identify it is crucial 
• 02:01 - 02:28 TechSmith Unlocked event announcement  
• 02:28 - 03:23 Introducing the HUMAN Framework acronym  
• 03:23 - 04:40 H - Harness your expertise 
• 04:40 - 05:38 How humans have access to nuance through lived experiences 
• 05:38 - 07:47 U - Understand your audience.  
• 07:47 - 09:00 M - Make it authentic, not artificial  
• 09:00 - 10:31 A - Aim for better, not just faster  
• 10:31 - 11:52 N - Never skip reviews  
• 11:52 - 12:30 How to use the framework as your guide 
• 12:30 - 13:00 Why you need to choose tools that keep you in control of the output 
• 13:00 - 13:28 The importance of ethical AI partnerships  
• 13:28 - 15:40 Control and customization in Camtasia AI  
• 15:40 - 16:30 AI as an augmentation tool 
• 16:30 - 17:17 Outro  

 Important links and mentions: 

• TechSmith Unlocked: https://discover.techsmith.com/techsmith-unlocked-2025/   
• Camtasia: https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/  

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. My

name is Matt Peirce, host of Visual Lounge, and today I'm going to be talking

about something we like to call a I Slop. That's right.

It's a phrase that's getting thrown around a lot and it's got some meaning. I

want to start off with a little bit of a story here. It's just going

to be me today, but so we'll have some more great guests coming soon. So

here's the story I want to tell. So I've been working with a variety of

different groups, including our PR group, and we wrote an article together about

AI slop and some things that are happening on channels like YouTube

and other places that are kind of trying to combat AI

slot. Because there's a lot of stuff going out, videos and music and

just audio that's, you know, it's just auto generated and it

has really not as much meaning or purpose or

it's really not doing much, just taking up space and not adding value to their

systems. Obviously a concern. So we wrote this article talking

about kind of the changes, the impact, things like that. And it was

funny, within one hour of that article getting published on a reputable

site, someone had duplicated it using AI

making changes, and it wasn't nearly as good. Now,

crazy, right? Like the things that AI is enabling people to do, to move

quickly. Obviously it can be a generator,

something that can speed you up. It can be something that can add value, to

do things that maybe you couldn't do otherwise. I think about like

vibe coding, but if you're in the world of marketing,

learning, design, training, you're maybe even in

product management or whatever it might be. There's a

lot of things getting thrown at us right now about AI,

and it can often be challenging to know, is this a good use?

Is this a bad use? Is it, you know, is this really good

content? Is it bad content? And so today, if you're

listening to this, on the day the podcast October 1st is being released, we are

hosting an event, TechSmith Unlocked, where we're going to be talking

about our vision for AI. And part of that event, one of the

things we were going to do is roll out a framework. Now,

time constraints, got a lot to show you, a lot of cool features, not

all of them, all AI things, but a lot of cool things coming down the

pipe that you can go sign up for unlocked if you haven't, or you

can always listen, get the replay, we'll be sharing out bits and pieces as well

as the full two and a half hour webinar. Let me share this about

what we were going to share. We're going to share what we're calling the Human

Framework. And the Human Framework is an

attempt to start to look at how you

apply AI, whether you're making video recording

audio, you're doing images, whatever it is, you could apply this to

that and to give you some guidance and direction in the time

of kind of this AI Wild, Wild

West. And now I want to be clear. I realize fully

that AI is, as they say, the worst it's ever going to be.

Its usefulness now may be limited compared to that

which it may become. AI

may not have yet realized its full potential. Right.

It has not become actualized as far as I know. But the

thing that I think is important is that as creators, as

people are creating content, we're thinking through what that might

mean. Now I want to go through what human stands for, because

it's an acronym, right? H U M a N. And then we'll

talk about each of these really briefly. So first is you need to

h harness your experience. Then

u understand your audience, because that's

something you can do. M then make it authentic,

not artificial. A aim for

better, not just faster. And n

never skip reviews. Now we're going to go through each of those, but I think

it's important to think through, like, you know, these pieces and we picked them

for a reason. There's probably other advice, but hopefully this becomes something that you can

turn to. Say, like, hey, I'm using AI. Am I

keeping it human? Have I harnessed my expertise? Understand the

audience, understand am I making it authentic? Am I aiming for better, not

just faster? And am I keeping, you know, not skipping my

reviews? So first, with harness your expertise. AI is meant

to be general. In our past podcast with Andy Cadena, we talked very

specifically about AI is going to aim for the common

denominator, like the kind of the middle ground and everything. And that can be really

good, especially if you're like, I don't know much about that, or I'm not really

an artist. I don't know how to draw an icon. Maybe it can make an

icon for me. So it's aiming for the middle. But you have expertise

as a human. You have experience, you have access to nuance,

nuance that is capable because you have lived through

experiences that you might not be able to read. I won't go deep into this,

but there's a lot of pieces about various Things that are happening with AI because

people are turning kind of it over AI over to be their therapist

or to give them advice, and they're, they're choosing to make decisions. And

one great report I read talked about that nuance is really, really, really

hard, even for humans sometimes. And AI just at

this point does not get it. So it doesn't understand that you're

hinting at something or thinking about something or, or there's gray areas.

It's like this is the answer and that's it. And that can

be problematic. And when it comes to like learning development, it comes these

other opportunities. We want to make sure that your judgment, your expertise, your

understanding is getting applied. Next is understanding

your audience. Now, AI also referring back to the episode with Andy

Crestedina, AI is really great at helping you

to maybe think about your audience in a different way or to start, provide you

information about your audience. But only you can choose the audience

and only you can make sure that that audience actually

matches up with your intention. So you might ask

AI, for instance, to look at your website, give you

kind of a portfolio view of who it thinks your core audience is.

Great. But is that actually who you're talking to, that who you're making

your training for? Is it really their lived experiences that. So you

need to pull those in. And again, I can augment here, can enhance it can

help, can you can use it as a thought partner to ask it questions and

have it challenge you. But at the end of the day, you have to make

a decision about your audience, what they need, who they are

and how you can help them and in the best possible ways or

better to connect with them. So, you know, asking yourself, who's this really

for? What do they need to know? Are my really giving

that to them and then really digging in a little bit deeper than

what? Again, nuance that the AI isn't going to be able to get you to.

And again, it can help cycle up that a little bit faster, a little bit

more, maybe think more deeply. But you've got to make some judgments

there. The next in M make it authentic, not

artificial. Authenticity

cannot be faked. AI can't do it. It's getting there. It's going

to be harder and harder as we go. But I think being

authentic, speaking from the heart, is something that it's going to have a hard time

doing for a long time now it can start to replicate ums and ahs,

pauses, mistakes even, maybe.

But is it going to be able to modulate its voice appropriately? Is

it going to Be able to do things that a human can do. And in

our imperfectness, right, in our frailty, in our ways that

we are sometimes terrible or bad or not good,

that becomes a calling card. Not to say we should make bad stuff, but just

the reality that like I lean in or I back

away or I do things that maybe aren't the

way perfectly done, but that has value in your

content. Now, I'm not saying going out and make mistakes or, you know, do that

just on purpose, but be re. That authenticity, it's. It's a real

currency. We can trade that in for the content, you know, help the

people that are, we're trying to connect with, right? So that comes down to the

choices that we're making, you know, and sometimes it's going to make sense to go

with an AI avatar or an AI voice or a stock

visual or something, right? But like, let's make sure

we're making those decisions with purpose, right? So that we're

not just letting it be like everything. Because some things

really matter. Like think about the experiences that you want to have

and where. Where it makes sense, right? You know, if an AI

avatar was the one to explain that your benefits are

getting cut or you're getting fired, or maybe

it's explaining the value of something else that you're like,

that's meant to be personal. It's meant to be human to human. And

those are. Because those are hard things and emotional and AI does not care.

It will say whatever you ask it to say. Essentially. Now,

within limits, of course, next, aim for better, not just faster.

Of course, AI can speed up a lot of the process, but this is

where again, you come in as a human. When

we think about video. I've been playing with VO3. We talked to Ellis Pratt

recently about VO3. It can make a lot of cool stuff. You can do

a lot of things with it. But is it better?

It could be faster, but is it better? And you know, right.

What I find right now is I'm dealing with a lot of, like, the

quirkiness that it outputs. And it's going to get better. It's going to get better

and it's going to get easier to understand. And I could get better at writing

my prompts and doing the things that I knew need to do, providing

context. But, like, what we're really trying to do is enhance the things that we're

doing now. Even though I said hey earlier, AI

aims for the middle, which it does, it might be able to

help elevate you because I find Often again, I like

the, again this example I've shared, but like, I use it as a thought partner.

I'm saying like, hey, I'm thinking about these things, you know, one by one,

like one at a time. Ask me a follow up question to help me to

get to, you know, to whatever. And that clarity is like having

a conversation with someone really.

AI maybe writes better stuff, but I write better stuff

because of it. And I'm more thoughtful about the things that I'm putting down on

paper or the video that I'm creating or whatever it is that I'm doing

because it's helping me to get to a better conclusion. And

that's not always faster. It could write something

one take. It could absolutely write something, one take and be done.

And it would be done, but it wouldn't be better. Okay, the last

thing is the end. Never skip reviews. We

know AI makes stuff up. It

hallucinates this term. It's gonna do it. So it's

critical that we're reviewing whatever it's putting out. There is a temptation because it

did something we just gotta get done. Maybe it's not that important that we don't

review it. You've got to review it. We've gotta save

yourself some embarrassment. Save yourself

and your learners or your audience confusion.

The worst case is that you're doing it for something that's really critical

and it makes a mistake and someone gets hurt, that's not good.

The best case is that like, oh gosh, that's dumb that it said that.

Ugh, let's just, you know, whatever. But even in that case,

what's the trust that's happening, right? When are you willing to erode that trust?

And so we just need to be thoughtful. Look, I get it.

Sometimes it's just fast, let's see what it cranks out. It's going to help you

move along, but take the time, right? Like take the time

to just go through it. Especially if you're going to share it with

other people. You know, even with a, like, say

there's different AI tools out there. If it's a caption that maybe is a little

bit wrong, I'm sure, maybe even on this podcast, just being thoughtful about

the impact that has on someone who might need that content,

who might be relying on it and you might be thinking, oh, it's just, I'm,

I'm glad I'm doing it as bonus. But

we want to just be really careful about that, right? So

all in all, with a human framework, it's a chance to stop and

reflect about the things that you're doing, the ways that you're using AI.

There's AI is out, the Pandora's box is open. It's

not going away. Tools are. We're going to see a continued rapid

rise of tools. I believe that we're going to see more and more tool sets,

more and more options of things that can do stuff and that they're going to

get increasingly more complex, increasingly more

sophisticated. And so we have a right to, you know, we need to do some

due diligence. So, you know, as you're going out seeking

tools that can do AI things,

make sure you're choosing the things that are going to allow you to remain and

keep the human in it. Both kind of from this

framework, but also just kind of naturally as well. Right? Like

be in the driver's seat still, maybe there's a day

that AI is so good that we don't have to worry about that and we're

all living in a Shangri La where we don't have to work so hard.

But until that day, it's critical that you are part of

the work that is going forward. You're and using AI.

And that's not saying don't use AI. I think you got

to embrace it. But make sure you're choosing tools that

are ethically sourcing their materials, that are partnering

and keeping you secure and thinking about that long term future.

Of course we want them to make better models and train things and we want

them to create things that make our lives easier. Who doesn't want

that? But make sure you're, you're thinking about that,

right? We believe at TechSmith that there is

a level of control and

customization that should be yours. So for instance, if you haven't heard

Camtasia AI, it's a Labs project for us.

We've taught basically an AI to create screencasts from images.

So it's pretty darn cool. But one of the things that

our designers have built into it is a lot of control. So even be,

even if you don't go into Camtasia to change everything, you can change the focus,

you can change the script, you can do lots of adjustments

before you ever produce a video. An MP4, you could produce just an MP4,

but you still have a lot of control. Or you could take it into Camtasia

and you can control all of it. It's all built

into a Camtasia project and that kind of control

puts you in the driver's seat. Now, there might be videos you're like, I don't

want to change anything. It's fine, it's good. It's good enough. The context,

right? Maybe I got to change a word or two, whatever, but it's good. And

there's my times. You're like, this got me a first good start. But I'm going

to go change the heck out of it because it's not where we want it

to be. And we think that there's a lot of power in control and

being able to, to adjust, right? Like when you put in what you put

in a prompt, if you just get back the final solution answer, it's like,

you know, now I gotta, you know, I, I've had very few

videos come back from other tools that have allowed me

to just use it without then having to take in, edit it or change it

or find some other pieces to put together over it. So

ultimately, at the end of the day, you've got to find a balance there. There's

not a one solution here. There's not one

AI. You know, we believe that partnering

with some of the best in class, best of breed, however you want to phrase

it, is going to be really powerful. We have announced in other

places that some of our tools, we're integrating with 11 labs,

we've got other tools that we're using and pulling in that we feel are

some of the best that are going to power some of the AI

technology behind what our tools do and then yet

allowing you still to have control. So we feel very strongly

that you need to be in the driver's seat. You are the human, you are

in control. And this framework hopefully will help you wrap your mind around

some best practices, things to help you. Look, we're not telling you how to prompt

things. There's lots of people out there tell you how to prompt things, not telling

you all the details. We have other stuff that we, other conversations we had about

building things. But this is about centering yourself

as a creator around how are you going to interact and use

AI as an augmentation, as a, as a building

block to do the things that you need to do. And, you know,

maybe this is a hope, this is an okay metaphor, but like, think about

when you augment your, you put on glasses, you see a little bit clearer, or

if you needed a prosthetic for something that helps you and enables you, or if

you use things in your shoes, any kind of augmentation, right? It enables you

to do more, maybe better, faster, more capably. And that's

what AI is doing, right? Now and we can use it well, but also

it can hinder you. So just be mindful about that process. But again,

let's wrap up with human Harness your expertise,

understand your audience, make it authentic,

not artificial. Aim for better, not just faster.

And never skip reviews. With that said, I hope you

found this unaugmented version of the Visual Lounge helpful and that

I hope that the human framework is something that you can apply. You can watch

for coming soon from us, there'll be a PDF with an article

blog post. We've got some other things that we'll put together to help emphasize these

ideas, but I wanted to share it here first in light of our TechSmith

unlock event. And if you haven't again TechSmith unlocked, you can

go search for that. We'll have stuff all other places you can find.

If you're missing it, I apologize about that. We'd to love love to have you

join us and if you can't again can't watch it. Don't worry,

we will be sharing out that content. We got a lot of cool things coming,

some fun announcements, some other things that are changing up. Watch out

moving things forward in a good, good way.

So with that said, we love our audience at the Visual Lounge. So

grateful for each and every one of you taking time to listen. Give us a

little bit of your attention and we'll what we hope is that you learn and

grow and continue to be better by spending just a little bit of

time leveling up every single day. Thanks everybody.