AI Created video presentations on YouTube and elsewhere

[Alan Edward Klein]

Fake YouTube videos: I watch YouTube videos on all sorts of subjects. What seems to be happening is that "creators" are posting their presentations on different subjects like science, psychology, etc using AI-created fake videos of real people describing the topic. Their voices and images of the presenters look and sound like the live person. Who knows what created the words? They compete with the real persons who have their own YouTubes. I am no longer sure which video is from the original, real-life person, or the fake AI person, so I'm distrusting everything I watch. What has been your experience? Is this even legal to copy another person to look and sound like them?

 

[koraks]

Is this even legal to copy another person to look and sound like them?

Depends. In many cases & places, it's not illegal. Also, regardless of whether it's legal - it happens.

IDK, I virtually only use YouTube for occasionally watching music videos. I do know that AI-generated podcasts and videos are rising to prominence. Sorry to hear about your confusion; I can see how it would be difficult to figure out which videos show real people. Ultimately, for the information content, I don't think there's a major difference between how it is now and how it was before. There's always been a load of bollocks on YouTube with a little good stuff interspersed with it. I think that will remain the same.

If there are specific creators you like and they don't use AI to generate their videos, I'd suggest simply watching their videos only on their own channel. That way you can be reasonably sure you're seeing the real deal.

 

[BrianShaw]

... so I'm distrusting everything I watch. What has been your experience?

I distrust most of Facebook and YouTube content unless/until I verify or know that the source is reliable. If/when decide to use other platforms it will be the same story. For me it has nothing to do with AI...

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I can assure you that this YouTuber is real. I'm AO, not AI.

 

[pbromaghin]

Make sure the channel it’s from is the channel of your real person. If not, don’t watch it.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I stopped trusting anything on youtube quite a few years ago

It was mainly nonsense even before ’AI’

 

[neuromantism]

It doesn't help that YouTube is using on many videos some sort of algorithm to reduce file size while "improving" image quality by giving it AI-guided denoising, sharpening, and who knows what else, gloss-over those videos. Without permission from the creators. Without an option to opt-out. Now it's even more difficult to discern what is generated and what is real, because the real content is being painted over by YouTube in a way resembling generated stuff.

 

[Jimskelton]

If a video comes up on your feed with subtle to obvious click-bait, is a talking head, and was posted days to hours ago, there's a good chance it's AI generated.

I find this phenomenon interesting, as other past trends in content generation. People in general don't like to be fooled. So if you believe a video was created by real people and later discover it wasn't, you feel a bit foolish and maybe a bit violated. Think back on the first time you saw a pic that was unusual or stunning, and you thought photographer did an admirable job in capturing something so good, then found out it was photoshopped. AI has taken that a step further, so an editor doesn't need as much of a creative process to enhance images.

I'm noticing significant backlash against AI generated content though, so that's a good thing. Youtube is supposed to note when a video has used AI to enhance the video. And I believe impersonation isn't allowed in their content policy, so you can report a video you think impersonates someone else.

They say AI will be the death of the internet as information becomes more and more generalized. But I think another factor is the concern about which you posted, which will result in a distrust in newer internet content. To be fair, AI generated content can be generally trusted most of the time, until it can't because it's hallucinating. Anyone who implicitly trusts it is setting himself up for failure.