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YouTube to clamp down on AI content?

YouTube is updating its terms of service, particularly in respect to the YouTube Partner Program which allows creators to share in ad revenue generated by the platform.

Many are already rejoicing at what appears to be a move that will remove the incentive for countless channels to automate the production of mind-numbingly awful AI-generated videos that have recently flooded the site.

We've all seen them -- they have catchy AI-generated thumbnails with click-baity titles and consist of an AI voice speaking an AI-generated script whilst displaying AI-generated video footage.

They are truly awful and it's hard to avoid them because they're everywhere.

Even worse, they are earning the people who run them millions of dollars a year.

While many genuine full-time YouTube creators struggle to pay their bills due to falling revenues and payouts, these automated channels are scoring huge numbers of views and raking in an ever-increasing share of the ad revenues on offer.

There appear to be two types of these AI-generated channels.

Some seem to score ridiculously large numbers of views, perhaps due to their thumbnails and titles. With hundreds of thousands or even millions of views per video, these channels become highly ranked by "the algorithm" and thus this popularity further compounds into even more views.

More often than not, they prey on the low-IQ viewers who love to believe in conspiracies and usually reinforce commonly spread misinformation or perhaps promise exclusive footage of alien spaceships and other such things. Some of them are also so well put together that if you do end up watching them it might take a minute or so to recognise that they are indeed AI-generated so even though you click away at that point, you've still added to the viewcount.

Another type of AI-generated video is the stupidly simple, template-based short AI video that has zero value and low production values. You might wonder why anyone would watch such a video and, sure enough, these tend to get just tens or at most, hundreds of views. However, the channels that upload them are often spewing out hundreds of such videos per day. This means that even though each video may not attract many views, the sheer volume of them ensures that the total viewcount for the month is enough to return a healthy pay-cheque for the channel operator.

With its latest annoucement, it would appear that YouTube is going to demonetize these automated content-farm channels and thus remove the financial incentive for those who create them.

Will that actually happen?

I'm not too sure because, as I've mentioned in a previous column, YouTube has already begun integrating AI tools into the suite of resources available to YouTube creators. Hell, you can already create "Shorts" videos that are AI-generated completely within the YouTube platform by using Google's VEO system. YT will also generate AI thumbnails and even video suggestions if you ask it to.

I'm wondering if this announcement on the part of YouTube is more about being seen to be doing something, rather than actually achieving any really effective outcome.

The reality is that YouTube doesn't care about anything other than eyeballs on ads and the revenue that brings. We've seen this with the shameless way they allow scam advertisements to run for months and in the face of thousands of "reports" that those ads are scams.

In the world of Aphabet, Google and YouTube, money talks and everything else is handed over to AI.

So if, like me, you despise this awful automated AI-generated dross, don't hold your breath that anything will happen on July 15th when this new policy is rolled out. I can guarantee that there will still be growing amounts of this crap polluting the platform and wasting your time -- all the while lining YouTube's pockets with ad revenue.

I guess Google's old mantra of "don't be evil" has been updated to "don't miss any chance to make a buck".

Carpe Diem folks!

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