Overview

Artificial intelligence (AI) sometimes get a bad wrap for the impact that it is claimed to have on the environment. For example, Karen Hao, the author of the book The Empire of AI, alleges that AI has an adverse impact on the environment that is not covered sufficiently enough in the media. Similarly, media outlets such as the Daily Mail have published articles about how AI has led to situations such as lakes drying up in Mexico.

This project therefore hopes to showcase AI in a more positive light, by showing how AI can be used to help sustainability efforts. In this case, AI was used to create a video for the Camden Challenge Prize, which is an inaugural prize run by Camden, a local government authority here in the United Kingdom, to see the most innovative responses to a task set by them. For 2025, Camden have announced the topic of this year is fighting food waste, and they want to see the best responses to this.

Background

I do not have much experience when it comes to using generative AI to creating videos. I've sometimes felt an "ick" when it comes to the topic of AI and video creation. That changed when Google announced it was launching Google Veo earlier this year in 2025. I saw the news over on X, formerly known as Twitter, and as someone who works for a company with an account with Google Cloud I thought it would be good to try it out.

I was really impressed with the results. There are two main ways in which you can use Google Veo. The first is through Google Gemini. Google announced a free trial for users a few months ago and you can output a video on Veo with it, although the videos will have a small "Veo" watermark at the bottom. The other way is through Google Vertex, wherein you enter a prompt and Google Veo will output a video which you can download. There is no watermark on these videos, and this was the approach taken here. The default number of videos produced is 4, but you can change it to the number that suits you. Note, however, that whilst Google Veo 3 is excellent at what it does and quick, it is also very expensive. A few videos can easily push you into spending hundreds of US dollars, so be mindful in how you use the tool.

There is also a maximum length limit of 8 seconds for the video you can produce. This is probably to save money and infrastructure on Google's end, but might also be a technical hurdle with AI itself given that AI has a limit when it comes to the issue of "context windows". There may be ways to "get around" this limit, such as by trying to create multiple videos and combining them together - Google Veo 3 has impressive "memory" when compared to other AI tools - or alternatively to rely on human artists to try to extrapolate from the videos produced by Google Veo 3 but ultimately these rely on ingenuity.

Application of AI to food waste

By producing this video, we're able to showcase how food waste is a problem in a way that can attract an audience, particularly those who are younger. Again, although AI gets a "bad press" when it comes to the environment, in truth it can be a double-edged sword, being capable of either being used for good or evil. In the words of Google, we have used Veo to do no evil. Our project for the Camden Challenge Prize will be submitted towards the end of September 2025.

Verdict

AI will be extremely helpful for artists and video creators. It won't fully displace artists and video creators but it will help streamline their work. For example, with this particular video that is part of the project A Short Film on Food Waste), had I tried to create something similar in Blender, an open-source 3d graphics software, it would have taken several _months to create just this one video. This is not an exaggeration. With generative AI tools such as Google Veo, this can now be done in a matter of minutes. Longer videos will still be the preserve of video creators and artists but generative AI has definitely opened up a new avenue for many people to express themselves.

Built With

• google-veo