Latest / Brett Keane and Eve Show / YouTube Secretly Used AI To Edit People's Videos

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YouTube Secretly Used AI To Edit People's Videos · Brett Keane and Eve Show

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  Hello there everyone, if you're watching this video then you are
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  part of the TTOR army, an army that is building itself up 1
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  subscriber at a time, and we are taking a break from your
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  regularly scheduled TTOR programming to bring you this
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  breaking news, this dystopian news.
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  YouTube recently secretly used AI to edit people's videos.
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  No, that is not a joke, that is not a parody.
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  That is the real world. And this information was brought
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  to us by, of all people, the BBC, which I will have the
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  archived link to this article in the description box down below,
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  down there somewhere. And as you can see on the
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  screen, the title, the article is literally YouTube secretly
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  used AI to edit people's videos. The results could bend reality.
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  This article came out just a couple days ago at the time of
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  this recording. And Oh my gosh, it is dystopian
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  is all heck. And we're just going to start
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  reading through this article and you're going to see just how
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  wild this is. YouTube made AI enhancements to
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  videos without telling users or asking permission.
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  As AI quietly mediates our world, what happens to our
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  shared connection with real life?
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  Rick Beto's face just didn't look right.
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  I was like, man, my hair looks strange, he says.
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  And the closer I looked, it almost seemed like I was wearing
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  makeup. Beto runs a YouTube channel with
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  over 5 million subscribers where he's made nearly 2000 videos
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  exploring the world of music. Something seemed off in one of
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  his recent posts, but he could barely tell the difference.
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  I thought, am I just imagining things?
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  It turns out he wasn't. In recent months, YouTube has
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  secretly used artificial intelligence AI to tweak
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  people's videos without letting them know or asking permission.
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  Wrinkles and shirts seemed more defined.
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  Skin is sharper in some places and smoother in others.
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  Pay close attention to ears and you may notice them warp.
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  These changes are small, barely visible without a side by side
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  comparison. Yet some disturbed Youtubers
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  says it gives their content a subtle and unwelcome AI
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  generated feeling. There's a larger trend at play.
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  A growing share of reality is pre processed by AI before it
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  reaches us. Eventually, the question won't
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  be whether you can tell the difference, but whether it's
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  eroding our ties to the world around us.
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  The more I looked at it, the more upset I got, says Rhett
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  Schull, another popular music YouTube.
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  Schull, a friend of Beto's, started looking into his own
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  posts and spotted the same strange artifacts.
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  He posted a video on the subject that's racked up over 500,000
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  views. If I wanted this terrible over
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  sharpening I would have done it myself.
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  But the bigger thing is it looks AI generated.
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  I think that deeply misrepresents me in what I do
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  and my voice on the Internet. It could potentially erode the
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  trust I have of my audience in a small way.
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  It just bothers me. Shul and beta weren't the first
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  to notice the problem. Complaints on social media date
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  back to June at least, with users posting close-ups of odd
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  looking body parts and questioning YouTube's
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  intentions. Now, after months of rumors in
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  the comments sections, the company has finally confirmed it
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  is altering a limited number of videos on YouTube Shorts, the
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  apps short form video feature. We're running an experiment on
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  select YouTube Shorts that uses traditional machine learning
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  technology to unblur, denoise and improve clarity in videos
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  during processing, similar to what a modern smartphone does
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  when you record a video, said Renee Ritchie, YouTube's head of
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  editor, tutorial and creator liaison, in a post on X.
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  YouTube is always working on ways to provide the best video
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  quality and experience possible and will continue to take
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  creator and viewer feedback into consideration as we iterate and
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  improve on these features. YouTube did not respond to the
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  BBC's questions about whether users will be given a choice
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  about AI tweaking their videos. So there you have it, ladies and
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  gentlemen. According to the BBC, going as
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  far back at least as June of this year.
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  So basically, at minimum, over the course of this whole summer,
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  YouTube has secretly been editing the videos on YouTube
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  Shorts that content creators have uploaded using AI.
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  And it's actually done during the uploading processing process
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  of those shorts. And in a Twitter post by their
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  head of editorial and creator liaison, YouTube acknowledged
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  that they did this, but they did not apologize for doing it.
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  And they did not respond to the BBC's questions about whether
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  users will be given a choice about AI tweaking their videos,
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  AKA users do not get that choice.
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  Yes, that is exactly what it is. And of course, if you go to
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  Google and look up this issue, the Google AI does a really
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  positive PR spin on the way that YouTube did this.
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  You go to Google, you type in YouTube secretly used AI to
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  alter videos. The AI overview says this While
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  not a widespread secret alteration of all videos,
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  YouTube has confirmed that it conducted an undisclosed
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  experiment using machine learning to enhance the video
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  quality of some Shorts. In other words, YouTube secretly
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  used AI to edit people's videos. The experiment sparked
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  controversy and frustration among creators who noticed their
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  videos were being changed without their permission.
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  So this is what YouTube did. After months of creators
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  reporting subtle visual changes, YouTube confirmed that it was
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  running an experiment on selected Shorts using
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  traditional machine learning technology.
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  The experiment was designed to automatically unblur, denoise,
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  and improve the clarity of videos during processing.
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  YouTube's head of editorial Renee Ritchie, specified on X
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  that the process did not use generative AI, which creates new
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  content. However, critics argue this is a
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  distinction without a difference, as it is still AI
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  being used to manipulate video content without consent.
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  The most significant issue for many creators was that the
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  changes were made without their knowledge, consent, or any
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  public notification. Creators who compared their
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  original uploaded files with the live YouTube versions noted
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  several specific alterations. Video subjects, especially
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  faces, appeared overly smoothed and plastic like sometimes
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  described as having an oil painting effect.
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  The AI noticeably changed specific details, like the
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  texture of hair and facial features for creators who
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  intentionally upload videos of a grainy or vintage aesthetic.
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  The filter stripped away their artistic choice, which is what
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  tipped people off that this was even going on.
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  The unannounced experiment has sparked backlash for several key
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  reasons. Erosion of trust.
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  Creators expressed anger over the lack of consent, viewing it
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  as a breach of trust between the platform and its content
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  creators. Unwanted tampering.
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  Many creators invest significant time and money into the specific
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  look and quality of their content and were upset that
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  YouTube was interfering with their work.
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  Feared misrepresentation. The AI generated look caused
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  concern that viewers would assume the creators were using
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  low effort AI to make their content, damaging their
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  reputation and audience trust. Unclear motives While some
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  speculate the motivation was to save server space or boost
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  performance, the lack of communication from YouTube has
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  left creators questioning the platform's intentions.
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  And for me, it's even worse than this because back when YouTube
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  first started all the way through 2019, YouTube used to
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  have a motto that was part of all their branding, and it was
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  YouTube broadcast yourself. YouTube was founded and intended
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  to be a website where users generate the video content on
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  the website. And not just like Hollywood
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  studios or anything like that. We're talking normal, average
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  people like you and me can upload videos to this website
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  and have a lot of people watch it potentially, or at least even
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  if not a lot of people watch it, it's out there for anyone to
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  watch. But back in 2019, as YouTube
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  censorship was starting to ramp up and up, they actually got rid
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  of the broadcast yourself motto from all of their official
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  branding. And now here we are in 2025, and
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  YouTube has opened Pandora's box.
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  They've opened up a path, a door that cannot be closed anymore.
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  They have literally started experimenting with editing
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  people's videos using AI while the video is uploading and
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  processing to the website. So it's not even that.
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  Oh, you upload and process the video to your website and then
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  after you walk away, YouTube comes in and makes these
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  changes? No, no no, YouTube is making the
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  changes with AI while your video is being uploaded and processing
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  on their website. This is scary because if they
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  can do these little things with AI while a video is uploading or
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  processing, well then it's only a matter of time where YouTube
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  decides to start changing your content wholesale when you
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  upload it to YouTube. So like, for example, you could
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  be uploading a video to YouTube, criticizing YouTube for all the
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  censorious things they've been doing for the last decade plus.
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  And YouTube's AI as its processing and uploading your
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  video decides, you know what? We're going to make an entirely
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  different video where you're praising YouTube for all of
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  their moderation practices that they've been implementing over
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  the last decade plus. Yes, it is getting to the point
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  where not only is YouTube not about broadcasting yourself, but
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  now it looks like the AI at YouTube is at least capable of
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  changing your content on the fly.
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  So users no longer have any control over their content that
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  they upload to YouTube. YouTube has opened that door.
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  Sure, YouTube might be limiting this feature to a limited number
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  of Shorts, and sure, it might not be affecting most of us who
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  are currently on YouTube. But if YouTube keeps going down
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  this path, it's going to reach a point to where YouTube's AI
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  decides what content is allowed to be on the website and which
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  content is altered. So it is possible in the future
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  that when you start exposing fallacious narratives being
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  pushed forth by the legacy media or the globalists, or you're
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  trying to expose big tech censorship on YouTube in the
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  future, there could come a point in the future where YouTube's AI
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  actually alters your video altogether so that it says
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  something completely different and opposite of what you're
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  trying to say. That is the very real danger
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  that just became possible through this discovery of
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  Youtubes secret experiment where they've been secretly using AI
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  to edit people's videos. This is a very dark dystopian
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  path that YouTube is going down, and if they don't close this
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  door and stop what they're doing with this AI alteration of
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  people's videos while it's being processed and uploaded to
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  YouTube, well then YouTube's not going to be a long term option
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  for anyone. After all, why put so much work
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  into uploading to YouTube if YouTube's AI it's just going to
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  alter your content while it's uploading to YouTube?
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  You're better off at that point using other alternatives to
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  YouTube. And there are several
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  alternatives that exist out there.
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  For example, if you're a fan of my content and you want to know
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  where you can find me in terms of websites other than YouTube,
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  well, there's a lot of places you can go.
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  Currently, the active sites I upload to are Rumble, which you
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  can see right here on the screen.
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  I do a lot of live streaming here and their terms of service
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  and community guidelines are a lot less censorious than
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  YouTube's is and to my knowledge, Rumble is not using
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  AI to alter people's content while it's being uploaded to
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  their site. There's also Bit Shoot, which
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  has been kind of a dead site for years, but it's a site where I'm
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  actually one of the biggest creators there.
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  As in I'm in the top 7%, maybe the top 5% of creators, a lot of
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  Subs. I get a lot of views of my
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  videos, especially the further back you go.
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  And this is a place where the censorship policies of YouTube
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  are not present, at least not to the extent that YouTube is.
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  Bit Shoot still has their own can of worms policy wise that
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  they haven't dealt with over the last several years, but it is
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  better to upload to Bit Shoot than YouTube at this point.
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  There's also Odyssey, which is a site that's been around for a
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  while, kind of around the same size as Bit Shoot and it's a
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  place where I backup my videos. So if you're interested in
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  watching my content here, then I would encourage you to do so.
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  Then there's FTJ media, which is a video sharing site that my
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  friends seeking the truth actually works at as an
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  engineer. YouTube alternative, live
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  streaming, free restreaming, public playlist, easy to use
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  comment moderation system. It's just a great website
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  overall and there's a lot you can do with it.
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  And you can write articles which allow you to embed videos from
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  not just FTJ Media, but any video site on the Internet that
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  allows HTML embedding code. You can post those in articles.
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  You can also upload pictures to the site instead of videos, and
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  you can upload audio files instead of videos if you want.
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  FTJ Media is a great place where freedom of speech is honored.
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  And if you're interested in watching my content on a site
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  like that, which I do a lot of streams to FTJ Media now and
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  then, so this is a good thing, I would say, then go ahead and
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  subscribe to me on FTJ Media and watch my content here.
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  And then there's my own website, quarter.tv, which is currently
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  on maintenance mode because I ran out of disk space and I have
• 15:09
  yet to figure out how to buy and purchase some additional disk
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  space on a new server. So that's still a work in
• 15:16
  progress. But when I do figure that out,
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  can't believe me after what we just talked about in today's
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  video, I will figure it out. Quarter TV will be another
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  option. So yes, those are all the places
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  where you can find me. And you definitely do not want
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  to invest in YouTube in the long term if you're a content creator
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  because, well, YouTube is already started secretly using
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  AI to edit people's videos without consent or permission or
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  any kind of public notification. And if they keep going down that
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  road, it's going to get worse and worse and worse.
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  And it's just good to be established in other places so
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  that when YouTube becomes unusable, we got other options.
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  And with that, I bid you guys a do and farewell and I will see
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  you in the next video to.