Randahl Fink

Animal rescue stories are popular on YouTube.

A YouTube channel sharing animal rescue stories now has 1.2 million subscribers.

The only problem? The stories are completely made up and the videos are generated using AI.

This content literally outcompetes videos from real animal shelters — for profit — while misinforming our children and anyone who cannot see the difference.

I cannot begin to describe how much that angers me.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7NLYSHJCn7M

Jan 12 at 9:27pmIvory for iOS
Show threadFransJan 12

@randahl If i was just browsing casually i am not sure I would be able to spot it... But yeah, best sign for me was whenever they clapped their hands either froze or melts together. Of course the general social response seems weirdly repetitive/formulated, but ohgod this is so dumb.
Wonder what the exact goal is with these AI bot farms?

EDIT: was referring to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw5-2cGp3nw

Dogs Choose Their Humans Real Adoption Stories

YouTube
Show threadRandahl FinkJan 12

@jalict money.

They never filmed a thing. AI stole everything from real content creators. The AI mob then hit generate. Real content creators cannot compete. AI mob wins the attention and keeps the all the profit.

Show threadFransJan 12

@randahl Bet..

Hacked accounts was always a problem because suddenly a channel with 2M subscribers could suddenly upload money scam videos to ton of real accounts.

I imagine they could also be building big (real) following base and then turn the channel to whatever they need.

Show threadFriekeJan 12
@randahl and no way to block 😑
Slopstuff
Show threadAhoJan 12
@randahl the whoel internet is now just AI generated junk, old information is still "easy" to find, just set a restriction that the result should be older than two years old... then you just have to filter out the russian/ccp misinformation and you you have a factual human written text online...
Show threadAlison CreeksideJan 12
@aho I think my fave is the dolphin sailing around in the ocean holding a snow leopard above water until it gratefully jumped into someone's boat who then rescued both. 🙄
@randahl
Show threadJonas 🇩🇰 🇬🇱Jan 12
@randahl I just un-followed a person here tonight on #Mastodon when I found out "she" posted AI videos. It's not good for realistic communication.
Show threadKevin RussellJan 12

@randahl

Google deserves a broken nose logo, for this alone.

Show threadElectropictJan 13

@randahl

🤔 Actually for once I just wonder if there's a silver lining to this cloud. Maybe AI animal rescue will price the reverse animal rescue* videos out of the market? At least, it may be the same people making them but it's less risky to them and less harmful if there are no real animals involved.

(* Where a healthy animal is filmed as the "after" state, then abused, starved, mutilated and filmed being "rescued" as the "before state", and usually killed so they can start afresh.)

Show threadEm & future cats 🇺🇦🐈🏳️‍🌈Jan 13
@randahl I’ve had to correct multiple people over the past couple of years because of this fact. I’m not an animal expert by education, but experience (I practically grew up in the woods) & these stories have so many holes in them if you know how an animal truly behaves. But the stories have a small sliver of plausibility, which makes most people think that they’re real.
I’m reminded of a quote from “Return of the Native” by Thomas Hardy:
“The truth cleverly told is the greatest lie of all…”
Show threadRandahl FinkJan 13

@em_and_future_cats that was a really interesting quote. However, I am getting no hits when looking up the quote in that book. Could it be from another book?

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/122/122-h/122-h.htm

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy

Show threadEm & future cats 🇺🇦🐈🏳️‍🌈Jan 13
@randahl it might have been “paraphrased” in the movie… It was a quote that stuck with me since I was very small… it was a quote Clym’s mother said.The particular version has Catherine Zeta Jones as Eustachia. I get mixed up sometimes between reading the books and watching the movies 😹 (I grew up on pbs and books so at least the movies were well done 😹)
Show threadRandahl FinkJan 13
@em_and_future_cats excellent. Thank you.
Show threadEm & future cats 🇺🇦🐈🏳️‍🌈Jan 13
@randahl it too makes me mad 😾
Show threadchrizelJan 13

@randahl A couple of days ago the YT timeline gave me this video with 3.6 million views: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_3vxoJDD9k

After a couple of minutes I thought “something is off”, and then found the AI disclaimer in the video description.

But if you read the comments section you realize that many thousands of people don’t realize that they watch fiction and nothing real.

Very concerning development.

I'm 73... It Took Me 52 Years To Learn This (Don't Waste Yours)

YouTube
Show threadJPPhotoJan 13
@randahl Yes and some are so good that I find it really hard to tell, Im a big fan of history and im getting very annoyed with the amount of disinformation about WWII etc that is on Youtube now...to the point that im thinking of cancelling my subscription
Show threadAnjaJan 13
@randahl Dit staat er letterlijk onder. People are just SO STUPID!
Show threadNoBorgJan 13

@HeyLaiverd @randahl

The problem is that those videos are later shared in other media (facebook, whatsapp...), without people ever going to Youtube to see the channel that produced it and the fine print.

You also have children that not necessarily check and will grow up not knowing what the real world is like.

Show threadTaylor SilverJan 13
@randahl of course the top comment is also someone that believes in fake bullshit