The use of the word "AI" in Davinci Resolve Studio

Hey all, I wanted to discuss the use of the word "AI". I'm not saying AI is bad and should be removed but do we really need to add "AI" to existing and new features?

For example did we need to change "Super Scale" -> "AI Super Scale" or "Voice Isolation" -> "AI Voice Isolation"?

I don't really see the benefits of this. It just makes it a bit confusing when spotting for them because they all have "AI in the beginning"

I feel like we should be very conservative on when we use the word AI in davinci resolve studio regardless on whether or not it's using AI. It's more appropriate to use them for generative or AI heavy features because people associate AI with those things. But for features that are small? Just name what it's doing.

Agreed

Marketing hype? I agree - streamline the menu names by removing the 'AI' unless there are two variants of the functionality to be distinguished (i.e., AI or ML variant, vs Legacy variant).

I'm guessing they are preparing the field for an "AI features" package subscription fee or pay upgrade every year which is basically a subscription as well.

I doubt it, but you never know. Interestingly, BMD has never given special names to features that are 'paid for' in Studio to distinguish them from those features available in the free version - maybe this is their attempt?

I agree, but also think there's one argument that it can be helpful; If you're looking to improve the performance of one of these features and you know it's AI-based, you can get a CPU/GPU/NPU with a higher TOPS rating.

Perhaps "AI" just refer to features that requires either LLM programming or Tensor cores.

Does not matter, is all "Apple Intelligence" anyway...

I'm guessing they are preparing the field for an "AI features" package subscription fee or pay upgrade every year which is basically a subscription as well.

Might be getting a bit off topic here, but I sure hope this isn't the case. I'm not against having a subscription model but it has to make sense. For example if I have to pay monthly to use a feature that is all processed locally on my computer, then I'm done with that software. However, if I have to pay monthly use features that are processed by powerful servers, then I completely understand.

It's hard to go either way. There should be a way to understand what's going on in an effect. The AutoColor on the Color page is not AI but I can see them making a version that will be soon. The subscription model for the AI material makes sense. If they're using paid models like Sora or something, then they have to pass on the costs, right? Maybe putting it at the end of the tool name instead of the beginning would keep the order naming legible but informative?

SuperScale
Super Scale AI
Voice Isolation
Voice Isolation AI

I've always looked at naming conventions like broad to detailed info.

Subject>Object>Sub-Object
Scaling X4 AI

It's hard to go either way. There should be a way to understand what's going on in an effect. The AutoColor on the Color page is not AI but I can see them making a version that will be soon.

It sounds like AI - Nvidia AI Libraries - which train the generated models Resolve uses, and says Tensor cores(where available) are used for accelerated inferencing just like 2025 AI. Resolve was ahead of it's time, one of the nearly 80 AI engine optimisations when first using V20 would have been for Auto Color.

Blackmagic Design's latest beta release of DaVinci Resolve 16 Studio now features the DaVinci Neural Engine. This new application leverages the power of neural networks and machine learning to help streamline the editing process and improve performance.

The DaVinci Neural Engine uses several NVIDIA AI libraries and Tensor Cores found on the latest NVIDIA RTX GPUs to accelerate inferencing. New RTX-powered features include:

Speed Warp, which interpolates frames to change the playback speed of videos and convert clip frame rates
Super Scale to increase footage resolution by up to 4x
Auto color and color matching
Facial recognition for automatic tagging and tracking of characters for smart bins
Stylize for transferring looks from one clip to another

Huh, I didn't start to pay attention to the AI stuff until Magic Mask. Thanks for the info!

It would be cool if the Auto Color was a guided experience. Like, asking you to identify your subject to find mid gray for the face. Do you want it warmer or cooler? High contrast or "Filmic"? HDR or Rec709?

I use the Auto tool now but it's hit or miss and is basically just a 709 with contrast for me although I could be using wrong I suppose.

Huh, I didn't start to pay attention to the AI stuff until Magic Mask. Thanks for the info!

It would be cool if the Auto Color was a guided experience. Like, asking you to identify your subject to find mid gray for the face. Do you want it warmer or cooler? High contrast or "Filmic"? HDR or Rec709?

Yeah I know what you mean, it's AI under the hood, but not all the bells and whistles it could have. Magic Mask2 is really impressive, watching it selecting objects and keeping the track is a great promotion for Resolve AI but Magic Mask (1) didn't have the same intelligence and was frequently lacking and frustrating as far as selecting objects and keeping track. MM2 really seems to understand what it's looking at as a human assistant would (in many cases)

I fully agree with you. AI is a buzz word, it's marketing. Indeed there is AI, but the examples you mentioned are not AI. Davinci Resolve is the best color grading program, with so many features, but for a lot of functions, called AI, you can better use separate specialized programs.

For example Topaz Video AI is doing the reconstruction of images, the upscaling, the denoise so much better. This is AI with deep learning, with huge amounts of trained data. Resolve talks about Neural Engines, I doubt if these ar trained as Topaz is doing.

Seperations of music channels you an better use Intel OpenVino in Audacity, free of charge.

AI Tools Voice convert, it sounds like Donald Duck. AI Dialogue Leveler is doing nothing in my clips with background noise. The AI Voice Isolation works great. Dialogue Matcher it sound if the speaker talks in a well.

Everybode seems to be enthousiastic, but I,m not. I think Reolve can better wait with these tools, till if it will works better in the future, otherwise leave it.

There are many VST Plugins doing better.

I worked for over 40 years in Telecom. In these days we have Text to Speech, Speech to text, Speech Recognition, ect. No AI, just software algoritmens and hardware. Now it is all mentioned AI.

Maybe I'm using it the wrong way and my comments are not correct. These are my experiences. Keep it as such, not to frustrate others.

As said Davinci Resole is by far the best video (color grading) program, editer. I used it from version 11. It was approx 1GB. Verison 20 is now 7.7GB. But is a fully packaged program with all these integrated tabs. And this for less a 300 dollar, bought in 2013 and still get the upgrades for free, is amazing!

do we really need to add "AI" to existing and new features?

Yes.

Because it's coooooool.

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I fully agree with you. AI is a buzz word, it's marketing. Indeed there is AI, but the examples you mentioned are not AI. Davinci Resolve is the best color grading program, with so many features, but for a lot of functions, called AI, you can better use separate specialized programs.

For example Topaz Video AI is doing the reconstruction of images, the upscaling, the denoise so much better. This is AI with deep learning, with huge amounts of trained data. Resolve talks about Neural Engines, I doubt if these ar trained as Topaz is doing.

SpeedWarp is real AI and has been in Resolve for years, what makes it AI is the inference model, unlike the other optical flow's that are just algorithms Speedwarp knows what it's looking at, It likely knows what a human, bicycle, car , street signs, trees, brick walls, and shop fronts are, so it knows not to blend the different objects together.