YouTube made AI enhancements to videos without telling users or asking permission. As AI quietly mediates our world, what happens to our shared connections with real life?

YouTube secretly used artificial intelligence to modify creators’ videos without notification or consent, making subtle changes to their appearance[1]. According to Rick Beato, who runs a YouTube channel with over 5 million subscribers, he noticed strange alterations in his videos - his hair looked different and it appeared he was wearing makeup[1:1].

The AI modifications included sharpening skin in some areas while smoothing it in others, defining wrinkles in clothing more clearly, and causing subtle warping of features like ears[1:2]. YouTuber Rhett Shull, who investigated the changes, said “If I wanted this terrible over-sharpening I would have done it myself… I think that deeply misrepresents me and what I do and my voice on the internet”[1:3].

The unauthorized AI enhancements represent a concerning trend where artificial intelligence increasingly mediates reality before it reaches viewers, potentially eroding authentic connections between creators and their audiences[1:4].

  1. BBC - YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos. The results could bend reality ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  • spongebue@lemmy.world
    28·
    6 days ago

    Who the fuck is asking for things like this? Is it really too much to ask for, at the very least, users to make these choices themselves in settings rather than everyone getting this crap passed forced down from the corporate level?

  • ignirtoq@fedia.io
    17·
    6 days ago

    Yet some disturbed YouTubers say it gives their content a subtle and unwelcome AI-generated feeling.

    I wonder if this is an attempt at smoothing out the differences between authentic video and AI-generated video from the other side. Secretly pass authentic videos through an AI filter not to improve them in any way, but to give them AI-generated characteristics. Then when purely AI-generated videos start to show up side-by-side on the platform, it becomes harder to differentiate from human-created content.

  • cyborganism@piefed.caEnglish
    8·
    6 days ago

    Imagine using a YouTube video of some event to submit as evidence in court and it gets thrown out for being changed by AI.