The AI ASMR trend is spreading on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Gently clinking glass fruit that spreads like jam onto glass toast.

Book pages made of water — or amethyst.

Snacks made of molten lava.

These videos and more are rapidly infiltrating the ASMR sphere. Let’s look at what AI ASMR is, how it’s made and how people are reacting to it.

What is AI ASMR?

As you might have guessed, AI ASMR is completely or almost completely AI-generated. Posters of this content make use of AI voice synthesizers, sound effects and, of course, visuals. However, there are some that use a mix of AI and human-produced assets or that use AI to enhance real AMSR triggers.

One of the most common tropes of the AI ASMR genre is a heavy emphasis on oddly satisfying visual content. Think peeling back painters’ tape to reveal a perfectly straight paint line. Or a commercial cake slicer cutting cakes into eight perfect slices. Except, with AI, we’re slicing into impossible objects like glass, lava and more.

AI ASMR also frequently employs loud AI sound effects that come across as unnaturally clear and crisp. Sound effects are often exaggerated for dramatic impact or to enhance the AMSR trigger. Music is a calm ambience, if it’s there at all.

Even more so than traditional ASMR content, these videos lean heavily into pattern and predictability. You’ll see lots of looping and repeating movements.

AI vs. surrealism

Many have connected the hazy imagery and missing details of AI images to the fuzziness of Surrealism. Indeed, like Surrealist art, these AI clips show scenes and objects that feel like they belong in a dream.

However, Surrealism seeks to access the unrefined dream world of an individual. AI, by contrast, shows us the collective dream world as filtered through the never-ending popularity contest that is the internet.

As art blogger Allise Nicole writes, “A big part of surrealism is psychology, opening your mind to the unconscious, and freeing oneself of social standards and social norms. AI is the exact opposite.”

How is AI ASMR made?

To make an AI ASMR video, creators usually rely on a collection of AI tools rather than a single AI video generator. For example, creators might use MidJourney or Runway to generate visual elements, Speechify to make a soft-spoken voiceover track, SFX Engine to generate sound effects and traditional editing software to bring everything together.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular tools for making AI ASMR videos.

Visuals

Dream-like visuals help AI ASMR stand out from traditional ASMR videos. Below, you’ll find some of the most popular options for AI video generation, but this list in certainly not exhaustive.

  • MidJourney: Text-to-image generator that can turn still images into short video clips
  • Stable Diffusion: Free online text-to-image generator
  • Runway: An AI visuals generator targeting video producers and other digital creators
  • Pika: Pitched as a tool for augmenting and improving reality, Pika adds visual effects to prerecorded videos
  • Kaiber: A canvas-based image, video and audio generator with built-in editing tools
  • Artlist: A complete suite of AI tools, including image, video, voiceover and sound effects generation

Audio

Many of the most powerful and universal ASMR triggers are audio-based. Think whispering, tapping, brushing, pouring, crackling and more. While some AI ASMR artists might record custom voice-overs and sound effects for their videos, many rely on AI-generated audio tracks. Here are some commonly used AI audio generators:

  • Speechify: A text-to-speech generator offering generic and celebrity voices as well as creator-specific tools for making voiceovers, clones and dubs
  • ElevenLabs: Touted as the most realistic AI voice generator, ElevenLabs’ AI tools can also generate sound effects for your AI ASMR videos
  • SFX Engine: AI sound effect generator trained for use in sound design, video production, and game development

Assembly and refinement

Once all the elements have been generated or recorded, AI ASMR artists still need to assemble everything into a finished ASMR video. One way to do this is using traditional editing software like these:

  • OpenShot: A free, open-source video editor perfect for simple editing
  • ShotCut: Another free, open-source video editor that offers more tools for more experienced video editors
  • DaVinci Resolve: A free yet powerful video editor that’s worth learning if you want to make non-AI-generated video content in the future

Good sound is essential for ASMR content, so AI ASMR creators often enhance recorded or AI-generated sound effects using traditional audio editing software. This helps boost clarity and ensure there’s no extra noise. It also allows creators to create layered, immersive soundscapes in stereo or 3D audio. Here are some audio editing software options:

  • Audacity: Simple, free audio editor
  • Adobe Audition: Professional-level sound editing software to fine-tune AI ASMR audio
  • Reaper: Pro digital audio workstation (DAW) for in-depth audio production and recording

Is AI ASMR good?

It’s undeniable that AI audio and video generation are getting more believable by the day. But beyond realism, AI makes it possible to quickly dream up fantastic scenes for the viewer. Want to see a gorilla wearing hot-pink lipstick doing ASMR? No problem. And it won’t take hours of CGI work or years of skill-building to accomplish it, either.

This all sounds great, but is it really what we want from ASMR artists? Many AMSR artists and enthusiasts say no. It will be interesting to see if the demand for AI ASMR remains strong once the novelty wears off. We will also see how the technology behind these AI-generated ASMR videos develop; it could be sooner, rather than later, when it could fool viewers into thinking it’s the real deal.

Featured image courtesy: Crazy AI