Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a new artificial intelligence technology that allows for faster and more efficient video editing using text-based commands. The project was led by Professor Nazanin Rahnavard, Associate Professor Chen Chen, and UCF alumni Nazmul Karim and Umar Khalid.
According to Rahnavard, “Our system takes the ‘brain’ of an AI that’s already skilled at generating images from text and adapts it for video, without losing the creative power that makes it effective in the first place.” She added, “Our breakthrough came from recognizing a fundamental inefficiency in existing text-to-video editing approaches. Current systems either require massive text-to-video datasets for training or rely on computationally expensive, per-video adaptations of text-to-image models. We believed there had to be a more efficient and elegant solution.”
The team combined expertise in electrical engineering and computer science to analyze how AI models adjust their internal parameters during learning. Instead of modifying all parameters, they focused on updating only singular values within the model. This approach preserves the model’s generalization ability while reducing adaptation time.
Rahnavard explained, “The key was learning which parts of the AI’s ‘memory’ to adjust, and which to preserve. By focusing only on the most essential elements and leaving the rest untouched, we created a method that adapts much faster and more efficiently while still producing high-quality, expressive results.”
The new AI tool can edit existing video clips within minutes. It can perform tasks such as changing clothing colors, swapping objects like replacing a cat with a dog, or transforming footage into cartoon style. While complex edits may take longer, most changes are completed quickly.
The university has been granted a patent for this technology. Rahnavard said movie studios and social media companies could benefit from its use: “This technology has the potential to revolutionize video editing across a wide range of industries. Movie studios could use it for rapid scene modifications without the need for costly reshoots, while social media platforms could offer their users instant, highly sophisticated video filters far beyond what’s available today.”
