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.
Remember Academic Earth and YouTube EDU before the change? I 'member
Pretty much every short is AI slop lol.
With a dozen comments from Boomers saying how inspiring/cute/infuriating/etc. the video is.
Tbh, they’re probably bots too
I’ve noticed and hate it. I keep getting things recommended to me that claim to be Prof Brian Cox explaining something interesting and if it’s not fake, it’s some interview I’ve already heard from someone else’s podcast that the channel owner stole and threw AI on top of. I cannot figure out how to stop this from happening; YouTube does not make it easy to block channels on its smart TV clients
tbh the last video I’ve watched from fern was basically an undisclosed 15min mc donalds advertisement… I don’t known how much educational the channel is after it got sold
For real. I had to unsubscribe. They’ve become quite the content mill and so has veritasium. Seems super disingenuous like oh woe my venture capital investment isn’t paying off, how could you do this to us?
The Death of Education
alis really the big picture that you’re witnessing. Having worked in education, this isn’t just AI. Even Auto-Correct and spelling correction really dumbed kids down. Reading levels are… So you switch to videos and now you get slop videos. So incorrect and potentially dangerous videos are the next bane. At this point students should have classes on how to identify AI slop.i would argue identifying AI slop is just an extension of teaching kids critical thinking and reasoning skills
That needs to happen more than generic rudimentary testing.
I’d argue that there is noting smart about knowing how to spell if your language has no rules of spelling, it is pure memorisation
It wood bee betr if Inglish had konsistent and fonetik orthografee, lyk othr tungs doo.
Well now we’re just old English peasants
See this is a pet peeve; yes you’re correct. I prefer students to be taught to a certain point where they can create their own words and find out they exist already. It’s kind of hard to explain but it comes down to understanding how these words are formed. Some aren’t in this category but many words are. So if you learn the way words are created then you essentially have access to words without having to know them by looking them up. This is kind of a ESL thing IMO, I speak multiple languages so I look at it differently. Slang meanings is where it gets fun though.
needed to look up ESL, English as a Second Language, americ*ns really like their 3 letter abbreviations
Before they called it ESL, like back in the 50’s and earlier, it was called “English for Foreigners” 😅
Hah personally I hate them but that one is really commonplace here. Probably used as a derogatory term really.
😂 what did you call me XD?
lol you’re no stranger to what I’ve been called then =P
I love fern and feel bad for them being so good it’s detrimental. I hope they find a solution
Some recs of my fave non-AI channels:
Tasting History
Not A Pound For Air To Ground
Epic History
Also BadEmpanada. That dude will probablt NEVER use AI since even AI cant come up with the arguments and examinations of situations that he puts in his videos. He Too Smaht.
And maybe NonCompete, BadHasbara, TheDeProgram, Srsly Wrong, Luna Oi, Some More News(I have no idea if these channels have changed their stancee towarss AI over the years cause I havent watched them recently but they did make somme fire content back in the day)
Tasting history is so good
i feel like it’s less good than it used to be. like bro tried to be more “normal,” more contained, less fun.
Moth light media is a little on the weirder side but it’s pretty cool too
Just to be clear, Kurzgesagt is not using AI, but being copied by AI slop.
I was just wondering this, considering the lengths they go to on their newer channel to prove that it’s not slop.
They are a slop channel. AI or not. The content they produce is garbage.
Edit: Kurzgesagt fanboys are sorry excuses for human life. It is people just like you who promote and encourage AI slop as well, because “I can’t tell” or “It’s really fun hahah”.
“Slop” is not determined by quality, but by intent. If no one responsible for making it cares about the quality of the output, it’s slop, regardless of how well-made it might be; on the flip side, even if something is really bad, it isn’t slop if the people making it are really passionate about doing the best they can. Kurzgesagt might be low quality, and it might be slop, but the two are not necessarily dependent upon one another.
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
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
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.
I want to add though, that it’s still possible to have selective biss even with good quality stuff. Kind of like how only certain studies are funded and those studies are still good.
I remember when kurzgesagt was first starting, I remember wishing all my school science videos were that good on those subjects.
Sure, they probably impart bias - and that VERY MUCH SHOULD GET FIXED - but kurz is still way better having been made.
Calling them slop, then, just doesn’t seem an appropriate criticism. Biased, funded by Bill Gates. Maybe.
But as far as billionaires go, at least it isn’t fucking Musk. I know I know, we shouldn’t settle for that, and I’m not proposing we do. But, as long as we’re discussing bias and accuracy, I think it’s important to try to be less biased and be more accurate, even with our criticisms, and kurzgesagt is not infallible or perfect, and shouldn’t be treated as such - but then, neither is either private nor public education. It doesn’t mean we should condemn the entire structure or system, it means we should hold them accountable and fix it.
Unless there’s systemic issues (and yes, there are, with being funded by ANY big power, be it a state power or private), I think we should merely try to do our best and be more deliberate with trying to do better.
I have a weird system for solving a totally unrelated challenge, and it goes like this: if you veto, you must propose the next suggestion (it’s about choosing what/where to eat).
So, in this context, I think it important to not only be more pointed in our criticisms, but potentially even suggest solutions, rather than just complain.
For kurz, then, instead of saying “being funded by Bill Gates is bad and obviously imparts bias” we should a) identity said bias (which it looks like people are wonderfully doing already, which is fantastic), and b) suggest what they should do instead of accepting money from Bill Gates.
On b, one thing they could do could be to turn it down, on reason of not wanting to take on strings or impart even perceived bias. To remain impartial. They could, alternatively, try to prove or create some kind of system to open criticisms about bias or hold a forum regarding said information, since they’ve grown in size so much.
I dunno. I’m trying to have an open mind here. I think it’s important to hold good information sources accountable, but I also think that anything we can do to oppose the insane, blatant far right agenda full of actual, EXTREME bias is a good start. I don’t think we should settle, but I’m also hesitant to hamstring anything that goes against that, for now.
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
They very much underplay the harms you aspect, almost as a byline, while they focus primarily on only harm for vape/weed. I don’t smoke anything, but if you compare the videos, the threat the three very differently.
-
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.
…wait whu would they block the comments on such a video?!?
I have watched this video a few months ago, and the comments were still on. It must be a recent change. No clue why
A weird change
A video where you expose a big company seems like an odd choice to block public commentary on seeing as how we currently live in a world where big companies can get away with conducting actual genocides
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?
the description of the video includes a link to their response to kurzgesagt with more information going over the parts kurz ignored.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thehatedone/comments/10pb1q9/my_response_to_kurzgesagt/
Thanks! So @DupaCycki@lemmy.world said
It’s blatant misinformation based on false data
Your link says Kurzgesagt
- should be more transparent about their funding (see e.g. the strawman section)
- shouldn’t rely on science funded by billionaire philanthropists and big pharma
- shouldn’t rely on purely Western data sources
Those are very different statements. In particular, your link says that the science and data can be completely correct, but that by obscuring conflicts of interest they reduce credibility, and by using Western data sources and scientists, their perspective is skewed.
It can all be good and credible science, but it’s science from a single perspective.
It’s an interesting discussion, but it doesn’t support the point that this should be disinformation or based on false data. It supports a much more moderate point that it represents a limited worldview, I’d say.
Kurzgesagt means midwit in Dutch
Kurzgesagt is not a Dutch word.
Sorry. In Persian
…then why would you?..
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.
But kids’ dad works in the corporation. He just wants to earn a living for the kids.
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 monetize 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.
theyre just gonna do the ‘slow reddit suicide’©®™ all for a little profit.
You think too highly of thrm iif you think this will end any other way lol.
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
That would be an affirmative action. Make curated copypasta of slop. It would be 2 gb of pure text file.
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
Yeah can also recommend Kagi. You can customize the results with ranking too if there are sites you dislike but still want some results from.
youtube without a channel blocker is just a pile of poop.
What it means for me is I find a Youtuber I like and cling to them for dear life. It also means if I really do want to learn something, I’ll find a better source than youtube–like a podcast specializing in that subject area, or even, dare I say, a book.
if I really do want to learn something, I’ll find a better source than youtube–like a podcast specializing in that subject area, or even, dare I say, a book.
… GASP … ! Thehy siaid it! The dreaded… B-Slur! …Well the mods wll b bannning you soon enouff causze youre not allowd to said the dreded B-Slur amongst us , us who cannut reed!
Me, be it Youtube, movies or music, I only consume pre-AI content. That way I’m sure it’s man-made.
At my age, I tend to be a bit stuck in the past anyway. So it’s not like I’m missing out on new stuff that interests me, because new stuff rarely interests me.
Just a reminder that there do exist anti-AI extensions on Firefox, as well as anti-AI blocklists for uBlock and other ads and trackers blockers.
You can’t be sure. There’s plenty of deep fake stuff out there of people that died before AI was even around. Alan Watts, for instance.
If you’re on YouTube, probably a good idea to learn to recognize slop, or at least avoid likely slop even if you can’t determine if it is slop definitively.
Oh I know slop when I see it. I just don’t want to play guess-the-content.
The stuff I watch or listen to is either very well known, or it’s so obscure that nobody is going to make deep fake of it.
Haha, you’re over 30 too, huh? I know that feeling
wait over 30 is old now?
I aint old! I AINT OLD! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CWNqwlHqaR4&pp=ygUKaSBhaW50IG9sZA%3D%3D
Also dont some athletes hit their prime at that time?
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.
He was always a douche
That “self-driving” stan? 😂
same reason i dumped cgpgrey years and years ago. the guy just started shilling for tesla for several videos in a row.
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.
That’s a good explanation. Mind sharing some of your other channels/creators that you enjoy more? I’d be keen to see.
Steve Mould is a great example of someone who sees a topic and digs deep because he’s curious, but doesn’t have a specific theme.
Cody’s Lab is another of the original generalized YouTube channels, but it’s a lot rougher. He doesn’t spend ton of time making clean videos.
Most of the other channels I watch are dedicated to a specific topic, like Practical Engineering, Technology Connections, or Nile Red.
This problem is especially prevalent in the Making community. You can see someone who just enjoys sharing building techniques slowly expand their workshop to one that none of their viewers can afford, and they become a “watch me make something that you can buy from me” channel.
A few that have avoided this are Woodworking for Mere Mortals, and Blondihacks.
There’s also people that make crazy projects that would likely kill you if you tried to repeat them, like Hyperspace Pirate.
Just don’t be afraid to ditch a channel after they lose their way, sometimes it’s best to move on to a different channel that still has a passion.
Unfortunately, it feels like the best ones are the channels that use it as a side hobby, not as a full time gig.
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.
Different guy, but to me while quality hasn’t really fallen they are starting to feel “less organic”. The stories feel more biased and sensationalised, in general I see more focus on entertainment than education. The “value” is still mostly there for me, but its purpose has changed from teaching to making line go up and it shows a little bit
Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining. I think I agree with you.
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.
Weren’t Fern and Veritasium bought by private equity?
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.
That’s how all the greats fell.
Fern over here throwing rocks from within a glass house
Yes, both.
They seem fishy enough.
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.
