Countless AI slop channels are relentlessly copying our work. So one day we decided: enough is enough. We went undercover to investigate who’s behind them and what this flood of AI slop means for the future of educational content on YouTube.
Some recs of my fave non-AI channels:
Tasting History
Not A Pound For Air To Ground
Epic History
Moth light media is a little on the weirder side but it’s pretty cool too
Tasting history is so good
There are still good education and scientific channels in YT, but they are currently a minority between a ton of BS, conspiranoic influences and AI crap. Even the AI algorrithm blocked music channels from own authors and artists, due “copyright issues”. YT is dying with this and more and more people go to Odysee to monitize their vids, without these crap and problems.
Honestly, YouTube should flush out the AI slop because it’s a waste of server space and bandwidth. Seize the quality, before it’s too late.
Fern have a great channel and they have shown their process and improved the art style
Not a fan of the sell out business model but only due to hesitancy, so far fern and veritasium are stillreleasing quality.
Veritasium has gone downhill after being bought by private equity
I thought it had gone downhill before that with the algorithm pushing every thought of a video out to 30+ mins.
Ugh real
I think Kings and Generals are still legit as well. I like Historia Civilis as well but I think he went full Patreon, or almost full anyway
Kids! Fuck this bullshit and go meet up at the library. You don’t need these ruthless tech corporations trying so hard to limit your options of what your future should be.
I am not sure about fern but kzgst and veritasium were both slop long before AI existed. The former had posted a lot of flashy but poorly-researched junk videos and has been a mouthpiece of the bill and Melinda gates Foundation for some time. The latter has done the game but took money from waymo to basically make a big waymo ad.
All of these channels are owned by private equity companies, which honestly is all you need to know.
Veritasium isn’t just misinformation and propaganda, but the guy is also an adult baby that throws a tantrum and gaslights you when you mention errors in his videos. In case you needed another reason to avoid that garbage.
Fern seems to be the single one that actually read the contract and negotiated terms, since even a while after being purchased, they still make high quality videos. Let’s see if it lasts.
Just to be clear, Kurzgesagt is not using AI, but being copied by AI slop.
They are a slop channel. AI or not. The content they produce is garbage.
Agree.
Of course AI is bad, but another problem with youtube is that 99% of the human made content is garbage.
Not just Kurzgesagt, but pretty much every channel with 100k+ subscribers will inevitably turn into trash, because of the need to keep up the rate of posting to stay relevant to keep getting paid to keep paying their expenses to keep making videos. This whole grind must keep going regardless of whether they have anything to post at all. So they all run dry eventually.
I watched all 20-30 minutes including all the fucking commercials of the video posted in OP - hoping to learn anything remotely new, but I didn’t. 30 minutes on something that could have been explained in a single written sentence.
I’m sure they’re wonderful people, and I’m sorry to trash talk the human creators, but the video is itself an example of how bad YouTube is, even without AI.
If they have a message for people that they want to share, they ought to cut to the chase instead of attempting to monitize on a single idea stretched out over 30 minutes.
It’s too bad they’re missing income from AI stealing their shit, but I have to wonder if they ought to be paid anything at all to begin with.
KG was visual slop before AI slop
Which doesn’t make it any less shitty of a channel
Kurzgesagt means midwit in Dutch
Kurzgesagt is not a Dutch word.
What’s so shitty about it? I quite like it.
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They claim to be “almost entirely viewer-funded”, which was later proved to NOT be the case. Kurzgesagt deflected when asked about this.
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They were making videos sponsored by Breakthrough Energy, Open Philantropy, and the Gates Foundation.
All three are Bill Gates affiliated.
Those videos were also conveniently aligning with financial interests of Bill Gates, as the videos advocated for carbon capture and lab meat. Bill Gates massively invested in both
Also vaping is bad Weed is bad Smoking is awesome
Like WTF? Phillip Morris give you some cash?
The smoking is awesome video is just a clickbait title, the video’s script is about all the ways smoking feels good but harms you. It’s not pro-smoking
Those are fair reasons for skepticism, but whenever I check, their videos are not misrepresenting or twisting the subjects they analyze, but are rather transparent about their sources, their limitations and the differences between presentation of data and more “opinion based” parts.
For sure it would be a problem if they were in the pocket of industry, but if somebody makes a truthful quality video on a topic, and they receive support from people interested in truthful quality videos on that topic, that itself does not render the video less truthful or less quality.
And doesn’t render it a shitty channel.
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It’s blatant misinformation based on false data.
A video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHMoNGqQTI
You can also read Kurzgesagt’s ‘response’, which cherry picks two arguments, twists them, doesn’t even properly respond to them, and ignores all other points made. In perfect, corporate PR fashion.
Are there text format criticisms? Or could you highlight the key points or evidence against Kurzgesagt? Sorry, I have a hard time parsing videos on this kind of stuff.
Also in general the videos I’ve seen are solid information based on good data, like Our World On Data, is it some specific video or class of videos that are misinformation and poorly founded in data?
I was just wondering this, considering the lengths they go to on their newer channel to prove that it’s not slop.
I haven’t logged in or watched any recommendations for almost two years now. The only time I see a video is when I actively search for it. Man, have I been out of the loop.
Been using PipePipe for so long that I forgot that YouTube just recommends things to you…
Getting rid of the algorithms sets you free.
My algorithmic recommendations are 90% music videos I have already watched.
I watch fewer videos in general in many genres unless I already know and trust the creator. I don’t want to support those who rip off others cause other damage, and many videos are to the point where I can’t immediately be sure and just don’t watch.
The moment I realize a video is AI written (it’s pretty easy to tell once you notice the way they tend to go) I blacklist the channel.
I wish you could share blocklists
I wish it was possible to blacklist AI generated articles from sites like duckduckgo or google as well. Duckduckgo allows you to block a limited amount of websites and I´d rather not use Google at all.
Perhaps search for results prior to 2023 or something, before AI took a massive steaming spraying shit on the internet.
Maybe kagi’s SlopStop is what you want. Otherwise they also allow you to block an unlimited number of websites. https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/slopstop.html
youtube without a channel blocker is just a pile of poop.
Weren’t Fern and Veritasium bought by private equity?
Fern over here throwing rocks from within a glass house
Yes, both.
I don’t know about Fern but I just this week saw an interview with Derek: The Real Reason Veritasium Sold His Channel. It’s really interesting review of the history of Veritasium, from the beginning. He still has some ownership, but less than 50%. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall him saying who the investors were.
Sorry to be lazy but can you give us a succinct summary of why?
I think the essence of it was that to continue to improve the quality of the content he needed help. He hired help, including full time, part time and freelance / contract people. But then he was spending time managing the team. As the team grew, his sense of responsibility to the team grew. He was spending less time on the content but more time in total. He learned that he wasn’t a very good business manager and he didn’t enjoy it like he enjoyed producing the content. He didn’t need capital. The cash flow was good. But he was exhausted, he needed help to run the business well and he wanted to spend more time with his family and that is what the investors offered: to manage and grow the business, allowing him to spend less time and focus on what he most enjoyed.
Like every other form of entertainment, you can choose quality content or you can choose total garbage. We all know the garbage du jour is going to get a ton of views, because it always has. There are still amazing channels on YouTube. Shout-out to Astrum.
I think you’re missing a few things that are different about AI than just bad content, which has always been and will always be with us.
First, there’s just so damn much of it.
Second, it can quickly steal a topic or a theme. So you might have a video that starts to break out and it will immediately be mined and copied by 50 other channels, all of which, because they put out a video a day, have more followers than you. And third, just AI existing is poisoning the well. Even if you are talking into a camera while juggling, people might suspect your script is AI…
Coco melon, tablet generation, COVID interrupted, influencer culture, AI highschool…
…and I still feel like this generation will turn out fine. This generation seems highly socially connected. They can find out pretty much anything they want, and there are hobbies galore.
Each generation shots on those who come after it, and eats up media claiming they’re a broken generation… But things don’t have to he that way.
This generation seems highly socially connected.
Actually average number of friends of a young person has never been lower.
They can find out pretty much anything they wan
AI worsens ability to search, read through, and evaluate large quantities of info;
since people don’t practice that skill anymore, and trust AI to find the most accurate up-to-date info.
and I still feel like this generation will turn out fine.
Looking at the burning planet, wars, and democratic backsliding - we would be lucky if this generation is not the last one.
Haha I don’t think we’re quite at “the end of the world and humanity” just yet.
you sound like ai
Probably an AI apologist…
You sound like a fucking idiot.
you sound like a, without the i
Losing Varitasium has sucked. It was gradual and I wanted to give the new videos a fair shake but that shit has gotten so artless.
That “self-driving” stan? 😂
I didn’t mean what when I wrote the comment but yeah, that was pretty indefensible. They’ve clearly gone to bat for some businesses
I’m a big fan of Veritasium. I don’t think I’ve seen an AI video by them yet though. Are the AI ones still with Derek and Casper and the people?
Perhaps I just haven’t gotten to the AI ones yet. Last one I watched was about the billion heart beats in mammals and metabolic rates.
Personally, I found that they used to be a “follow the passion” channel. They were interested in a topic and shared what they found out. You could tell they cared.
Slowly, even before the private equity thing, you could tell that they were making videos for business reasons. Either cause they thought it was going to be a popular topic, or because it was going to make them money from a partnership.
Both types of content results in educational videos. The problem is that when you start with a conclusion and work backwards to the content, instead of working from curiosity, it really shows.
There continues to be content out there that starts with passion and works towards an organic conclusion. I’ll continue spending my time watching those instead of channels run by the financial end of the business.
You’re right. I think maybe I’m just having bad days where I get hypercritical of things and then I see a video that’s just less focused and I make assumptions.
I had assumed earlier on that they were using ai assets for visual aids but had no evidence for that. I didn’t examine any further because that just wouldn’t bother me. But the most recent video on filming solar eclipse has cuts and interactions that were probably just clumsily edited but for some reason I hyper fixated on. The previous one I felt off about was the one about EMV chips. Things like cutting to team members having conversations that recap the thing that was just shown or explained. It’s not proof at all but I thought, hey that’s how generative ai writes.
Op’s video addresses this issue where we’re getting so hypervigilant about ai that I thought I saw it in places where I had no evidence to think it was happening. so I guess that phenomenon is real
I guess we won’t know fully. I saw in a recent video right at the beginning it said “all the animations in this video were made by humans”. But that’s just one video. I still like the channel but yes if it gets Sloppy I would be very sad.
They’re private equity. Have been for a while now.
I jumped ship when I found out.Can you explain how that has impacted the quality? Personally I still enjoy the channel and learn a lot from it. Does private equity bring the risk that their content will be too tightly controlled?
No, i can’t because i quit watching. I don’t support private equity.
In the start of the video they confirm they also use AI… So… Yeah…
For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t want to waste 2 minutes getting to that part:
AI is undoubtedly useful in many aspects of life and it’s here to stay. We use AI tools selectively in our own organization. For example, to organize and skim through our research. In rare cases, we use generated imagery as a basis for compositions in Photoshop if no comparable stock images are available.
Context for those who don’t watch: they described using AI images as precursors for photoshop jobs when they can’t find others that work. Implying no “raw” AI gen, but potentially some artists replaced upstream.
(This is a summary from memory, ran into this after watching the vid. Correct me as appropriate.)
that is why I don’t click on youtube links on social media, they are just about guaranteed to be trash.
Except when it’s TechnologyConnections. He is my spirit-geek.
random looking youtube, maybe interesting
The “It’s a british kettle” thumbnail, suggests he is probably from the ‘country’ between Mexico and Canada though.
Yeah and he’s not happy about it, routinely using his specific soapbox to inform people of the precise ways the American government is ruining things. (His 90 minute video on renewable energy from a few months back veers hard into a political plea, unusually direct for the channel but it’s very clear how much he cares and wants people to push for radical change) If you can get over your bigotry it’s easily the best “How It’s Made” style deep dives into mundane technology and how it’s integrated in our lives.
My point was the daft “british kettle”, as if the uk is the only place where people know that electricity can heat water…
Knowing that the usa is the worst thing to happen to earth in the last fucking large amount of years, is not bigotry, it’s just common sense.
The specific kettle is from Britain, it’s not the concept of kettles that is unknown to us.
Just watch the video, you moron.
Should he refer to a kettle from Britain as a foreign kettle? Genuinely, what way of referencing it would have been unobjectionable to you here?
The electric nature of the kettle isn’t what makes it abnormal for Americans (it might not be owned by every household, but people aren’t generally surprised or confused by them), it’s because Britain has 240V and the US has 120V electricity in most outlets, so American electric kettles take longer to boil water.
Damn, just unsubscribed. They’re had some good videos.
For context it is minimal. They give detail in the video
Not minimal enough.
Nnnnnnoooooooooo!!! I was on a roll checking things off my todo list and then I found this… Gaaaah. Back to procrastinating I guess. 🍿
