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.
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.
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.
They claim to be “almost entirely viewer-funded”, which was later proved to NOT be the case. Kurzgesagt deflected when asked about this.
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.
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.
https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/10jlyyk/kurzgesagt_statement_to_the_conflict_of_interest/?solution=b43f6dc8abb6ffdbb43f6dc8abb6ffdb&js_challenge=1&jsc_token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec99c0261658c638dce035a6bc03872661&jsc_orig_r=
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.