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 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    61·
    14 hours ago

    You might have missed the problem.

    We have an authentic connection to the author when we engage with their content, the editing and lighting and scripting is a reality they create and share with us.

    What YouTube did was mediate the connection between the creator and the viewers. YouTube destroyed the reality that the author was trying to create for their viewers and substituted its own reality instead.