YouTube’s Science Scam Crisis

There’s a tsunami of science spam on KZbin. Why does it all look the same? How much harm does it do? Do not watch these low-effort, AI-generated, cash grabs.
💪 JOIN [THE FACILITY] for members-only live streams, behind-the-scenes posts, and the official Discord: / @kylehill
💪PATREON: / kylehill
👕 NEW MERCH DROP OUT NOW! shop.kylehill.net
🎥 SUB TO THE GAMING CHANNEL: / @kylehillgaming
✅ MANDATORY LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS
📲 FOLLOW ME ON SOCIETY-RUINING SOCIAL MEDIA:
🐦 / sci_phile
📷 / sci_phile
😎: Kyle
✂: Charles Shattuck
🤖: @Claire Max
🎹: bensound.com
🎨: Mr. Mass / mysterygiftmovie
🎵: freesound.org
🎼: Mëydan
“Changes” (meydan.bandcamp.com/) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org)

[@kylehill]

Hello to all the people potentially from Ridddle. As you will see, I left a comment on their "rebuttal" video apologizing for any missteps. However, I still believe their response video grossly misunderstood my points, and contained numerous fallacies. I stand by what I actually said with my mouth in this video. That being said, I'd like to put this behind me -- drama is NOT what I care about.

[@samuelloomis9714]

I'd like to know what happened to today's stream. I was a little late getting to it, so halfway through watching it just vanished. Edit: It's back. :)

[@damienmcgirl3577]

Good on you Kyle. I'm honestly shocked about how well you were under that emotional stress. I hope you have a good day :)

[@DRMadeIt]

I disagree and think your apology was halfhearted. An apology doesn’t include a but or a defense of yourself. You blatantly called them out as a scam channel and accused them of posting your video.

[@damienmcgirl3577]

@@DRMadeIt He accused them of stealing the likeness of the thumbnail and name of video, which they did, word for word. I will say normally I would agree with you, but in this case Kyle doubled down on his accusations about the clickbait thumbnails to make it clear that he was not apologizing for that. Kyle was making it clear that he was apologizing for his fans leaving hateful messages, reporting without viewing the content (something he made clear to do), and for negatively impacting the people behind the channel for implying that they might be machine learning algorithms

[@buttmonkey522]

Rough my dog has better manners than this guy

[@ziqi92]

Developing a sixth sense for scams and spam is a crucial skill in modern society.

[@sihamhamda47]

It's not even the 6th sense, it expands and enhances to 999th sense because those scammers are always finding the different way to trick us every time we try to avoid those

[@nacl2246]

Always take everything with a grain of salt is a lesson that i learned today. And trust issue are actually beneficial

[@aprildawnsunshine4326]

Yeah but then real companies (internet provider starting with x comes to mind) act like spammers and you can't tell anymore between the scams and legit businesses. Happening with banking too, just look at all the people scammed by fake fraud alert calls. You literally can't tell the difference between a real one and a scammer, and I have experienced this personally and then got threatened by the bank with being kicked out because I'm "too much of a risk" not that I'm bitter about that or anything 😤

[@joeg5414]

I've been seeing a lot of these type of videos and always just ignored them. It's such obvious BS. Just the titles make it pretty clear. I feel bad for people falling for it. I imagine it's mostly younger kids who don't know better yet.

[@thedivineofsin]

@@joeg5414honestly I don’t think it’s good bad. It nurtures their interest in science. There are many channels that do this, but not enough of them.

[@kreatuslucina]

All the companies making life hack spam have followed the flow. Life hacks became a joke so they shifted to grinding out spam science for more views.

[@theterminaldave]

That sucks. I just bought a hot glue gun and a 15 pack of bic lighters, what am I supposed to do with all this stuff now?

[@Call-me-Al]

​@@theterminaldave a flame "piano"?

[@hefoxed]

They at least made their own footage :x

[@sir.grumpypawson6598]

pseudo science in most cases

[@soogymoogi]

This stuff would at least be entertaining if they did it Troom Troom style. "Blondie wanted to discover the philosopher's stone, so she had her friend Redhead pee in a cup. Gross! She boils the pee down, and... Wow! Blondie discovered a new element!"

[@evennorthug2585]

KZbin is like a city without a garbage system.

[@TheKeystoneChannel]

KZbin IS the garbage now

[@otter.mayhem]

It reminds me more of the dark ages when people dumped their chamber pots on the streets everyone else had to walk on 😂 I read once certains areas even had laws to punish you if you didn't call out a warning to people below before tossing your literal shit out a window, but I don't think youtube even has anything that basically decent lmao

[@TayWoode]

And deletes any comments exposing the garbage as if pretending there isn’t any

[@After2912]

So KZbin is basically new york

[@karaqakkzl]

KZbin is like China and Dubai at the same time

[@Dombledore11]

I recently got into astronomy as a hobby and the amount of misinformation in the astronomy KZbin space is astounding and so disappointing to see

[@OnyxtheFolf]

bio major here. I see the exact same pattern with health information. I believe it's because the complex sciences are things people have heard of in media but most have very little understanding of them. People are intrigued yet clueless about such things. Very easy to lie to without getting called out

[@NuclearLabRat]

It’s probably because some people will read a little bit about subject and suddenly believe they’re experts. They overestimate their understanding. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

[@Stryker-K]

I'd argue it's not the astronomy YT space. It's all spaces. That thought should keep people on their toes.

[@oxymoron02]

"KZbin has a problem" KZbin has a TON of problems in recent years.

[@cyjanek7818]

"recent years"

[@biggybro4124]

Oh shoot, they got it down to one?!

[@F4Wildcat]

Ah common its not that bad, here let me open the youtube problem closet and *gets buried under an avalanche of problems

[@Dan_Kanerva]

"recent years" means : since 2016 when they introduced the family friendly tos

[@MrPaxio]

the incorrect health advice with dudes standing in grocery aisles on shorts is getting out of control too. they'll claim vitamin C is bad, that canola oil is bad, etc and many people thank them in the comments, when they just took advice from what is essentially teaktoak.

[@salvatoreshiggerino6810]

KZbin is complicit in this. Disabling the like/dislike ratio makes that abundantly clear. As long as it grabs people's attention and is neutral or at least in accordance with tech bro political sensibilities, it's as good of a cash cow to Google as it is to the creators of the channels.

[@radimvybiral105]

angry upvote :)

[@unclerobert7532]

Amen

[@woodificould]

100%

[@patrickbateman9196]

Who remembers the good old Star days?

[@ckatheman]

Disabling the "dislike" was done entirely for political reasons.

[@Kruton1122]

I just had to show my mom this video because she got herself worked up and crying over one about the world ending and parallel universes because of the cern collider. Thank you for this.

[@NT-sx2bd]

Pleaee give her a hug and tell her it'll all be okay

[@officialshinky]

tell her to watch steins gate

[@tmkay_]

​@@officialshinkydo you want to give the poor woman a heart attack

[@OnyxtheFolf]

You should visit CERN if you happen to be close by! They a have a visitor center. It's pretty cool. They're not evil doctors opening portals to hell, it's basically just a tube where they smash shit together real fast and watch what it does

[@Kruton1122]

@@OnyxtheFolf oh I’m aware and I’m definitely not nearby x3 She just got freaked out

[@p4m80r34]

This is why youtube should have never removed the dislike counter, the dislike counter was best indicator to the quality of a video. These channels would not have existed if people saw the actual dislikes

[@parveshkhatri1027]

But they get a lot of likes

[@Lucas_Simoni]

@@parveshkhatri1027 So does the most disliked videos before the dislike button was removed. Any videos with a lot of views will always get a lot of likes, for some people it's just a reflex to tap on the like button... But I'm so sure those videos actually have much more dislikes recorded than likes, we just don't see it. 😢

[@jgunther3398]

dislikes were removed so they could flourish. they don't earn less than better videos and they potentially outnumber them

[@zvxcvxcz]

@@Lucas_Simoni Nah, they had many more likes than dislikes... they get spread around very dumb circles and often cater to a bias of that circle. These ones a bit less so, but other than science there are others with religious or bigoted themes. You and I don't click dislike on them because we wouldn't click to watch the video in the first place, but there are plenty of braindead people out there that watch these videos and agree with what they're saying. It's really sad, but that's humanity.

[@Nogardtist]

not exactly the dislike ratio half was used to combat misleading to manipulative content the rest of the half is for drama lets say racist disney remakes cash grabs to cancelling a independent creator due to groomer allegations

[@Irisspring9339]

The worst part is you probably just end up reporting it to an AI...

[@colinkhalid1]

sadly true

[@jgunther3398]

Report it? Do you think they don't know their own business and it isn't exactly the way they want it?

[@Oriana_leung]

😭

[@Melecie]

perhaps unfortunately, this is (if i am right, i have never worked on developing ais myself, most of my AI knowledge is from carykh pre-covid) just part of how some AIs, usually generative ones work: it's actually made up of two AIs, one making content and another guessing if the content is real or made up, which is then passed back to the first ai to serve as whether what they did is good or bad. at least i hope youtube's reporting ai has nothing to do with (or incompatible with) content generation systems

[@simonmultiverse6349]

I have my personal list of channels which I like, and another list which I have banned from ever appearing. The channel may try to tell me something which is clearly false, or may try to show me a picture which is clearly falsely constructed. (example 1: a Mars rover on top of a large rock which it could not possibly have climbed because the rock has vertical sides; example 2: a Mars rover which is described as having travelled a long way, although there are no tracks leading up to the rover.) You can tell I know a fair amount about what I'm looking at, for the subjects I'm interested in.

[@RWScott986]

it's not just science. there's also sites that do nothing but inspirational and/or strange and/or medical related stories w/heavy title premises that are never addressed, have no point or overarching narrative structure, just word salad that goes on and on aimlessly w/creative commons music and stock footage.

[@pessien8474]

Honestly im starting to feel tired of all this shit honestly, its either fucking summaries with little to no substance or stupid A.I shit.

[@martydom666]

Those are ai videos made by government for views and money.

[@A_C_E_R...]

I've seen account's edging me to go bcak to "traditional masculinity" and reject "globalists" witch is a very common dogwhistle for jewish people witch is just actually insane

[@averitiamiku]

I love it when KZbin scammers saying a new solar system is found with aliens and Technology YET NOBODY speaks about it....almost as if...it's fake

[@JackieOwl94]

Anything that says “You won’t believe what happens next” or “What ___ don’t want you to know” immediately puts my BS detector on high alert.

[@crumpling2426]

DOCTORS HATE HIM

[@uktruecrime]

who don't say.

[@zyxw2000]

"This has terrified scientists" and "This was recently unearthed" and "What you learned in school was wrong" "They've lied to you."

[@dashippo]

"Scientists are stumped" "Science can't explain this"...the morals/ethics are nowhere to be found for the channels that spread this nonsense.

[@tommeliusbthaprofit6157]

It's insane to me how many people lack comprehension skills to the point they wouldn't notice this We need to go to some dystopian meritocracy where if you're too relarded to avoid AI videos you get a big stamp on your forehead and aren't allowed to get car loans and shit So sick of the critical mass of fucking idiots ruining my content

[@KoongYe]

My biggest fear of AI is the floodgate of AI generated media that will consume every corner of human experience, where people are constantly fed with stimulating media like cattle in a barn. And I sincerely think we are seeing the birth-phase of that.

[@PaladinofRealm]

Let's look how this comment ages, I think you're right.

[@Sarah-yd9gt]

If we could teach AI not to lie and to value academic integrity, AI could generate entire courses worth of information for students to study in an interactive curriculum. However, AI is not reliable at all to stick to the truth.

[@rugbybeef]

AI ingesting, training, regurgitating mediocre content, and amplifying every inaccuracy exponentially. It is the beginning of the events that will lead to the Butlerian Jihad (á la Dune & Frank Herbert) Which of the following would you most prefer? A: A puppy, B: A pretty flower from your sweetie, or C: A large properly formatted data file? 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦!

[@oliverlukac384]

I was thinking about this. Tiktok can easily suck us in one day feeding us a never ending feed based on our dopamine receptors, which they tracked. Huge risk

[@rugbybeef]

​@@Sarah-yd9gt Lol, if we could teach academics and students to value not to lie and value academic integrity we wouldn't have to wonder why AI keeps being inflicted on us with no thought to the morality. Tech companies: Free guns, free guns here... The terms of service absolve us of any personal liability for your actions. We have no issue with that because we were engineering students and had no philosophical, civic, or ethics classes. That's where we learned to make cool guns like these while you can enjoy a more relaxed hunting experience via AI. And because you can only use a device for the purpose and use case I designed for it and my ulterior undisclosed use case, building this better gun is all I bothered to learn before dropping out of college. Don't let that worry you though the terms of service also forbid anyone from doing anything bad or criminal buried so deep in the text that if printed they would be on page 23. And since you glanced at that while letting the pages leaf in front of you, you are informed. Okay ready to get your gun? Just confirm you read and understood everything on all 27 pages of that document you were handed 8 seconds ago. Oop can only confirm by telling me what that is a picture of on the last page before saying "I accept." That's a guy walking across the street? If you say so... I'll let the guys know in the autonomous driving department know. Here's your gun, and 25 trial bullets and a hand grenade to sample. Come back daily and we'll give you 25 more bullets or you can buy them in our merch store because that gun doesn't fit any bullets not sold in our merch store. Thanks from everybody on the team! We are committed to AI breakthroughs and massive bong hits because AI-mHigh.

[@kappazo2268]

This seems like the logical end state of what started with Discovery/History and its sibling channels getting away from anything resembling history or intellectual content but marketing themselves as educational.

[@PeetHobby]

I always mark those channels as 'not interested,' so they won't get recommended anymore. That's the best thing you can do. Don't give them thumbs down, because KZbin will see that as active interaction and push the video up instead of down. Never interact with channels you don't like; just put them on the 'not interested' list by clicking on the three dots next to the title of the recommended video, then select 'Not interested' from the drop-down list, and choose to manage the recommendations for that video.

[@roycleveland7718]

Thank you, i didnt realize that dislikes only push it out to the public more :\

[@scottprather5645]

Yeah that's exactly what I do so that's good advice

[@eliash8054]

The fact that this video was demonitized says a lot

[@thisandthat1701]

Just a thought ,you may or may not be religious or ordinarily dismiss these things but what word does demonitised contain?; even scientists shouldnt discount the supernatural ,if they do then they are not being open minded which is sort of supposed to be the ethos of science (in theory anyway).

[@Gordon_Freeman_PhD]

​@@thisandthat1701 Uhhhhh.... what?

[@Gimurei]

​@@thisandthat1701what are you waffling on about

[@forgenorman3025]

@@thisandthat1701 Scientists work on evidence, and there's no solid evidence for any of what you're saying. End of.

[@iveharzing]

​@@thisandthat1701 The ethos of Science is: *_COLD. HARD. PROOF._* Got any of that?

[@correlolelo]

The saddest part is that this stuff is only gonna get worse. KZbin just doesn't care as long as it rakes in money. Our social bottomline has become the monetary bottomline and if that doesn't change these things are just gonna spread to every facet of our lives.

[@MrYago-xd7um]

Technology Connections got a million views in a day just for brake lights, enjoy that little bit of hope in humanity.

[@scush]

i wish kyle would have touched on this a bit more. the problem _is_ incentive structures here. youtube will only start caring if it begins to hurt the google brand, there’s no telling when or if that’s gonna happen, tho.

[@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal]

Are you suggesting KZbin should become an expense to google (since it's already not profitable due to how much it costs to already police and regulate the near endless content on it as is) and then go bankrupt and we not have KZbin in a year instead? What's your solution exactly?

[@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal]

​@@scush do you realize the the amount of content policing it does already renders KZbin non profitable as it is now? It's weird to me that people that use KZbin so much don't even understand it's financial situation and what the actual real cost is to monitoring, policing, and reviewing the millions of videos uploaded every day...

[@2639theboss]

​@@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal KZbins content is managed 99% of the time managed by algorithms. There is no additional expense. And, there are numerous highly profitable channels which have been demonitized either by youtubes algorithm, or, been demonitized by false copyright claims youtube has no interest in addressing. So no. Profit is not the issue.

[@TheRealRevelation]

Yes! As you went through pointing out all the photoshopped images I couldn’t help but yell out, “it’s about damn time someone is saying something about this crap!”

[@waffles3629]

Yep, full agree except for calling a cancer survivor photoshopped because she had her nose removed to save her life. A 3 second google search found her.

[@timsanders5779]

You've just described the entirety of KZbin. It's not just science, but every topic and category is flooded with AI clickbait. Add the constant in-video ads and KZbin is impossible to watch.

[@Dollightful]

It's the "5minutecrafts" of the science YT community, isn't it?

[@Argylleagen]

Bullseye! ching ching ching

[@nathanGC__]

This subject really needs more attention. It spoils people's mind thinking they get smarter...

[@joyrowancasey788]

Hey Dollightful 😂 love your channel and absolutely did not expect to see you here but glad to see you also hate fake science videos 💕

[@fennecfoxrocks649]

Honestly its more of the "Watchmojo" or "The Things" of the yt science community, but yeah basically

[@Yanto_sangat_ireng]

Yeah

[@johnfarias7230]

This is why everybody was so mad when they deleted the thumbs down button you seen that many negative votes you don't bother watching the video

[@TheKeystoneChannel]

You see the likes and subscriber counts and you do...what does that tell you? Cause even that is generated like with Google... small channels don't stand a chance , they are deliberately kept small when talking about this or removed all together as I have pretty much all my friends who have been removed and some had quite a lot of subscribers. KZbin is one fake cesspool of fakery now that is pushed on you how they please through their algorythm , the only reason I see this video and content creator for the first time is cause it was mentioned on Rumble , never seen him or heard of this guy

[@riptide0872]

If you're on a computer, there is an extension that adds the dislike button back, that's what I like to use

[@elishh8173]

@riptide0872 Really?! That's amazing!!! Everyone with a computer should use it! I dont have one right now but everyone with a computer should use it. Honestly U tjube is just a money grabbing liar platform nowadays. If they were serious, they would have kept the dislike button and not deleted all so called "conspiracy channels" I would still like youtube. But they are just money making liars nowadays.

[@dazm901]

@@riptide0872 Alphabet does not release the data to third party developers that make those extensions. The software just uses an algorithm to estimate the thumbs down. Yet another scam unfortunately.

[@Anti_Septikum]

​​@@riptide0872only on pc and only when you add the extension, this is shit.

[@brolaire8851]

Riddle has always made half-ass "hypothetical" content. A majority of it is speculative and lacks quality research. Which is sad cause most of the ideas are genuinely super intriguing

[@xedalpha1]

Easiest way to tell is when the bots start mispronuncing basic words. That and titles are usually like 'scientists finally solve the mystery of X. What they discovered is terrifying'

[@MechMK1]

The disclaimer "Our channel is based on facts, rumor and fiction" had me in tears.

[@caan_69420]

The euphemism of "trust me bro"

[@kingofnara]

Covered all possibilities 😂

[@johncao6516]

Came to comment just that and you beat me to it

[@itismethatguy]

I know right i was surprised Kyle didnt comment on that

[@RamadaArtist]

@@caan_69420 nah, more like: the euphemism that "trust me bro" stands for.

[@manuelfriend4060]

Highschools really need to start providing "how to spot scams" classes along their personal finance classes. Edit: Well some of these replies are just downright depressing. If you're a teen, find school boring and too slow, and want to try something new; I'd like to recommend the book College Without Highschool. Maybe it's up your alley. On the topic of personal finance, I don't have any one book to point to, but I can say the one most useful piece of advice I've heard in relation to it is: "Never spend money you don't have." Of course not always possible, but think twice before borrowing money in any form. On a related topic, Economics In One Lesson is also a great read. School will teach you the abstract and the numbers of economics, but this book I feel teaches you the application of it instead. Might help with personal finance if you get a look at the bigger picture too?

[@tupacalypse88]

I think the research shows the more you think you know how to spot scans the more likely you are to be scammed

[@honestiguana]

High schools ARE scams.

[@orppranator5230]

How about we bring back personal finance classes before that? Seriously, public schools barely teach you anything anymore.

[@NATESOR]

Information and science literacy is going to be one of the must critical skills to have in the foreseeable future. It hasn't even been on the radar for the past 20 years, so we have a lot of catching up to do...

[@austinm5630]

Sadly, this would likely collapse the economy. The U.S. Economy is largely built upon the backs of what the Soviets would call "useful idiots." Instead of being unwitting tools for spreading communism, our useful idiots buy crap they don't need because a marketing department told them to, on credit cards they can't afford to pay back because a bank convinced them they could, all so they can go into bankruptcy that won't save them the way they think it will. These useful idiots spend their entire lives in this endless cycle, and they are the difference between profitability and not for thousands upon thousands of low-margin businesses across well over a hundred industries. So if you educate them, all of those businesses go under, about 20% of the labor market evaporates with them, and boom, it's Great Depression 2: Electric Boogaloo, but twice as bad because unemployment is actually 10% higher this time. Capitalism itself is a Ponzi scheme. Socialism isn't any better, but just because a second option is bad doesn't automatically make the first option good. Fortunately, it plays out over decades and the life cycle of a human means the scheme is largely sustainable, so long as the ground floor of the pyramid can be kept ignorant. We really do live in the wh40k timeline, we're just in it 40,000 years early.

[@asinglefrenchfry]

It’s not just science videos, AI content slop is absolutely everywhere right now

[@kevalyarathore223]

How is this "AI"...?

[@PeterParker-ff7ub]

There's so much nonsense online and everyone is here. Some people need to clean it up.

[@scroft469301]

This is why I’m a huge proponent of critical thinking being taught in schools.

[@Akrilloth]

Seems like the "Elite" or whatever one can call them is directly in opposition to that though, can't get cheap labour if the workforce actually thinks about their situation.

[@birdsamora9925]

@@Akrilloth what are you talking about bro

[@Akrilloth]

@@birdsamora9925 There is a reason geography is somehow an optional subject in american schools.

[@birdsamora9925]

@@Akrilloth 😵‍💫

[@birdsamora9925]

@@Akrilloth Welp guess keep on going to khan for now

[@coffeetablesex]

10 months and countless reports later, KZbin is still recommending these scam videos on a daily basis...

[@naomisherred166]

Even when I say not interested and they won't recommend again, sure enough few days later that channel came up again. 😂😏

[@TheKeystoneChannel]

As if those are the only ones ....

[@OnyxtheFolf]

​@naomisherred166 the not interested button does absolutely nothing lmao. If algorithm has decided that you are likely to engage based on your demographics it will go to your feed whether you want it or not. Is the reason I keep getting weird sociopolitics rammed down my throat even though I've never once indicated any interest in it

[@xisumavoid]

Thanks for bringing attention to this! I worry that there is a split viewership where people watching that content are unaware of the quality videos science communicators like yourself make. I never watch those videos but occasionally I get "trickbaited" as you put it. As soon as I hear that robotic voice I click away. What's concerning is how fast AI is improving paired with this activity you are bringing attention to. Its going to feel more and more like authentic content with time. That amount of people its fooling and misleading will increase if not dealt with!

[@countingwithjerold]

We need real ones 😳

[@CODENAMEDERPY]

These channels have also overrun the shorts section. If you watch any short that has to do with science, a never-ending torrent of these channels' nonsense will fill your youtube shorts recommendations. I no longer watch youtube shorts due to that.

[@christianbarrett3040]

The crossover I wasn't expecting.

[@Blaineworld]

omg xisuma hi !!

[@Fireheart318]

Didn’t expect to see you here!

[@tyripley2495]

Instantly subscribed, I’ve ran into this same problem on KZbin lately

[@aussieklutz]

Saw this come up as a recommendation again... and i dont think i've seen as much of the spam over the last handful of months...

[@stevemcgroob4446]

I wanted to remain cautiously optimistic about AI but the ugly side of exploitation seems to be happening sooner than hoped.

[@Dan_Kanerva]

i hope some mad lad gives AI sentience before humans corrupt it all

[@Wampa842]

Capitalism's just great, isn't it?

[@supersleepygrumpybear]

It's crypto all over again

[@themalaphage673]

@@Dan_Kanerva Rushing to give something we don't fully understand yet sentience is moronic.

[@xalener]

exploitation doesn't wait. Thinking it's something one can wait to prepare for is not only foolish, but makes one just as culpable as the perpetrators.

[@rossbabcock3790]

I'm a retired electrical engineer. I am continually stunned at the schlock that passes as science! We need a 'YT Bunkbusters' group. I'm waiting for the 'cold fusion in a beer mug' gag to return!

[@MizzzFizzz]

That is an awesome idea, I'd love to see miss information being used as an educational tool. Explaining why it is false in the first place can be a good way to help explain and understand it.

[@apeacebone6499]

How To Cook That by Ann Reardon has done occasional debunking videos of clickbait cooking and DIY videos for a couple years now. I was thinking while watching this, it sounds like a very similar mechanism: a lot of content farm channels recycling stolen and/or faked content, with a ton of subs/views but very little other engagement. It infuriates me to see them go without any consequences while legitimate creators are demonetized over nothing.

[@Spielername]

A channel tried to scam me via comment section. This guy changed his name tag and picture to the channel I was commenting on and told me I won a prize and asked me to contact him via WhatsApp. I clicked on the name tag and then on the real channel behind it, and it was a completely different channel. I reported his Nigerian arse to KZbin (at least i guess he is Nigerian because of the two videos of his wedding party he posted years ago on his channel) but they just answered that there is no proof that he actually tried to😊 scam me. KZbin does shyte if you report someone. So don't hope that there will be a crackdown on those channels too soon. As long as KZbin makes money with this kind of content.... you know what I mean.

[@Spielername]

​​@WizZz FizZz Do you know how much misinformation is spread via this platform? You wouldn't even know where to start + they would probably copy strike you before you put the first video online.

[@ScienceSpams]

I have already started to place alerts on a few of the scammer's channels and report them to KZbin for what it is worth. I hate these numb nuts stealing intellectual property and original creations to ultimately try and fill their own wallets with cash. They are adding to the mockery made of science during the Trump years. The same science that helps them do so many things in life.

[@Moonshine449]

It has gotten so much worse. Nearly every ad is a scam ad now.

[@NoOneEscapesJustice.]

Wow bro, those scam ads needs to be gone right now..

[@timschoonover19]

Damn. You hit the nail on the head. There is so much content like this, and the Yt algorithm tries to serve it up to me weekly.

[@Kallinenjp]

One thing that has always bothered me is KZbin's continued efforts to make it difficult or impossible to do anything about content you dislike. You can't block channels, dislikes have become essentially meaningless, and "the algorithm" has effectively made it impossible to curate content you actually want to see short of subscription to particular channels. Half the time I can find videos faster using Google search for a topic rather than the search bar and even that is going down the drain.

[@tropicalvikingcreations]

You can actually block channels still, they've just moved it and added a bunch of extra steps and crap to dissuade you from blocking or mass reporting a channel. Think it's in the 3 dot icon when you go the actual channel page or about section. (Not the pop up on mobile, that doesn't work for that)

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

Stuff like the Flat earth movement tok off after KZbin change the algorithm so it's only engagement that counts. So stupid vids with lots of negative comments and dislikes is counted the same as good videos with positive comments and likes. The scary thing is that youtube and other platforms can change the real world.

[@Norsilca]

I've always found the search box to be worse than Google, for many years now

[@scrubjay93]

Recently the KZbin algorithm flooded my recommends with videos on a topic AFTER I had selected the "not interested" option on a video. It was like the algorithm deliberately working opposite to the intended function. Not the first time it has happened.

[@ilyarepin9490]

This is an even bigger issue in shorts. Despite my best efforts to curate my feed towards the educational, pseudoscience and conspiracy content gets fed into the feed by default and counted as a view. Despite me literally watching anti-conspiracy content in the first place. The watch-time based algorithm just doesn't work in ultra short form content.

[@jeffspaulding43]

I've been feeling this for weeks if not months. it's good to have a sanity check pointing it out.

[@willlive6845]

The amount of hour long random science videos with electronic voices is insane, they are nice to fall asleep to sometimes.

[@NightRogue77]

Bruuuuhhhhhh I literally feel more grounded and connected to reality now and there’s a SLIVER of hyperbole there, MAYBE lol. It’s a form of gaslighting man no BS - cause man to autistic peeps eg that can pick up on this shit real easy, well GOOD LUCK getting anyone passing by in comments to stop by and fist bump you Kyle my gd HERO today

[@NightRogue77]

My hypothesis - they are building fake profiles. This isn’t just in science but us smarter smarty pants gonna see more science than anything else; seems like your typical social media profile building BS - so build the subs and content, then sell the channel.

[@Sky_C]

@@willlive6845 no same tho, astrumspace and destinyspace were my go to's for falling asleep, but I'm gonna change this shit now

[@Alias_Anybody]

I've actually seen that happening with history channels.

[@rd76pag]

I had a sneaky suspicion about these channels. Thanks for making a public awareness video.

[@meme-qg7bj]

I always hate the ai generated conversations with rogan, gogins etc.

[@Starman_Dx]

When I want good, fresh, organically grown sciencing, and Vsauce isn't around, I come to my favorite scienceman. Well, after Kurzgesagt doesn't have anything new. And PBS... But Kyle Science Odinson is right up there.

[@Johncornwell103]

You should also look up Anton Petrov

[@Starman_Dx]

@@Johncornwell103 Been subbed, didn't want to list everyone.

[@Johncornwell103]

@@Starman_Dx Ok

[@theguy8412]

Kurzgesagt is propaganda

[@exomancer3632]

​@@Starman_Dx Isaac Arthur?

[@dolomedestenebrosus9564]

"trap doors of attention to pits of nonsense" is a good way of putting it. I'm glad someone's talking about this and I hope this video really takes off and something can be done to fight this. This type of thing disturbs me a lot.

[@iluvyunie]

well yeah but is he not also making this exact crap in this very video? i.e. "HERE'S WHY SCIENCE IS DOOMED" clickbait title, everyone is dumb but me, I'm da real1 His videos are actually quite high quality I must admit but he's starting to fall into this finger pointing trap instead of just producing quality videos

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I thought it was bad when this kind of bad science "infotainment" started to takeover formerly good science venues like the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, the History Channel... But at least I was able to cancel cable and get away from those. Now this crap has followed me to KZbin. At least I can still use the "don't watch it" tool... for now.

[@janeydoe7417]

​@@iluvyunie what are you talking about? Are you making schitt up? There is a problem with pseudoscience, pop science and scams on KZbin. The hell? This nonsense is usually in entertainment, but now the celibrity-pop culture-ization of science is making idiotic audiences think they are edycated when they are not. Now whether AI is behind these, idk, but the point is moneymakers are using the popularization of science to spout bullschitt for clicks and ultimately ad revenue. Some are straight up propaganda and sensationalism.

[@dolomedestenebrosus9564]

@@iluvyunie n...no? Did you even watch this video and listen to what he's talking about?

[@HoneyBadgerLikesYou]

@@iluvyunie even IF you were right about this assessment, he remarks in this very video that there’s a difference between a genuine creator needing to game the algorithm and an AI-powered content farm of monetised braindeath. You can’t compare Kyle to these channels at all.

[@angryrabidfoxes7380]

The slop has gotten far more prevalent and intense since the uploading of this video.

[@MacElMasMancoDeTodos]

The title: 9TG PLANET has been DISCOVERED by NASA SCIENTISTS The video: 2 mins of useless intro, 1 min to explain how its not been discovered but just a theory, 1 min of sponsor, 2 mins of usless outro The info fonts: 0

[@mikhail_roberts]

“Trapdoors of attention to pits of nonsense.” What a quote. Well done man.

[@UnkleKlumsy1353]

This is not even the first time I've seen a KZbinr try to expose these click farm channels. It is the first time in regards to "science themed" topics

[@Chris-hx3om]

Thunderf00t said exactly this would happen MONTHS ago...

[@OnyxtheFolf]

KZbinrs in other afflicted content spheres have tried to call this stuff out too

[@i25island46]

Dude thank you for covering this. I can’t stand these fake channels. all clickbait

[@erdngtn9942]

I now report as spam or misinformation, ever single channel I see doing this. My email is flooded but easily redirected permanently

[@drewz116]

I'm so glad this is finally being talked about, especially by someone with more than a million subs. I hope more in the community also bring attention to this issue

[@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

And do what? Keep nameless, faceless people and organizations from making money? Tabloids aren't banned on KZbin.

[@b005t3r]

I doubt KZbin is ever gonna change anything about it.

[@Insanerobert44]

To be honest, there are tons of pseudo-science and idiotic conspiracies like flath earthers on KZbin since - possibly it's first launch as a platform - that, for me, they just look like changing the thematic just to syphon more views, likes and subscribes. Plus the plenty of quick cash-grab-themed channels that got oversaturated on KZbin.

[@rektexcalibur5254]

This comment is for the algorithm

[@s13silly]

Thank you, seriously, I'm sick of telling my friends that what they are seeing in this regard is garbage. It amazes how gullible people can be.

[@maevwat]

there are people who believe wwe is real and argue about it😂

[@Cooper846]

​@@maevwat 🤦‍♂️

[@killermetalwolf2843]

it would be nice if someone made a somewhat comprehensive list of these to go report bomb

[@s13silly]

@@maevwat true

[@Comet-2011-W3-Lovejoy]

​@@killermetalwolf2843 should I do it

[@WilliamMorales-kg2io]

This is absolutely true, but it's not only a "science" issue. Misinformation is prevalent in everything I find.

[@illarionbykov7401]

I noticed this too. It pollutes many categories of instructional and educational videos: science, math, technology, AI, history, geopolitics, modern military/war, martial arts/boxing, sex/gender issues... YT seems to demonetize, shadowban, or outright delete many of the best and most accurate channels while promoting countless sloppy spam clickbait channels. YT even deleted an entire channel of videos by Stanford/UCLA Professors lecturing on Internet policy and censorship.

[@snakegirl695]

The fake science videos are driving me nuts now, because i love space, science and ufo stuff, but i do not love being lied to! These channels are getting out of hand! 😢 🤬

[@dflosounds]

I've said it before and will say it again: if there will be an AI-apocalypse, it will not look like Terminator. It will be a slow and painful societal downfall due to mass-misinformation. Personally I'd opt for the Terminator scenario.

[@concernednewfie]

Speak for yourself, I for one support our future AI overlords

[@cat_supernova2242]

@@concernednewfie im leaving this planet before that happens. i have a set plan of what and how im gonna do it. and im not telling. EDIT: my plans hath expanded.

[@daymal2717]

​@@concernednewfiethey will surely treat us better than the guys in charge now!

[@concernednewfie]

@@daymal2717 When our future AI/Alien/Lizardman/Trans-dimensional overlords arrive, they will start scanning KZbin comments for who is loyal. I for one support our future non human leaders.

[@TI.T.O]

​@@daymal2717 what about minorities or homosexuals? Would A.I discriminate? As we already do now?

[@Stonehawk]

Thank you for creating this, and I want to PERSONALLY ensure that you are properly compensated for my watch as well as the watchings of several others. Fuck KZbin's pissbaby sensitivity.

[@paulmccartney2327]

Nice wasted money crіngelord

[@paulmccartney2327]

Go back to furaffinity ffs

[@paulmccartney2327]

Please log off the internet

[@sirblue5586]

​@@paulmccartney2327I don't remember this from "Live and Let die"

[@northerntribe8127]

Thanks for sharing my year long pain. I thought i was wrong till ur video came to affirm what i been stressed about KZbin. Seriously, thanks a bunch 👍🏻. U are a brave warrior in the great misinformation war

[@swapnildawar6426]

Everyone needs to understand this

[@JesusOfTheJungle]

This is a genuine service to humanity. You've changed, man. All these years of masquerading as a super villain! What is the world coming to!?

[@paperburn]

The downfall of every super villain is when a tiny slip of humanity shows.

[@poopsiepop4179]

Science thor has always been a hero

[@kae5717]

Even supervillains have standards! That's what separates them from the standard villains. (That, and presentation!)

[@crystalsoulslayer]

Of course he's still a supervillain. Useful experimentation requires useful test subjects. Do you know what it's like to design and build an automated quadruple-blind facility to convert --foolish mortals-- I mean volunteers into human-octopus-osprey hybrids, and then find that all your testing is invalid because those humans watched two straight hours of absolute nonsense in the waiting room before the procedure? My lawyer says I don't know what that's like. But I mean, come on. We've all been there. I'm sure "Mr. Hill" knows exactly what I'm talking about. Though again, my lawyer would like me to reiterate that _I absolutely haven't_ done _anything_ like that. Ever.

[@devindykstra]

I unfortunately came across one of these channels when my mom sent me a link to one of their videos because she thought I would be interested in the topic. Bless her heart she meant well, but it made me realize how someone who is less technical might fall prey to these scams without even realizing they're being fed lies and misinformation. Thanks Kyle for bringing this issue to light. Here's to hoping this scam ends soon!

[@Daisyboobs]

Ugh, I went to a friend's the other week and her KZbin account was full of this crap. "You won't believe what scientists have found under the ocean", thumbnail was a blatant CGI of alien heads underwater. I wondered why she was paranoid, depressed, and mentioning crazy stuff. Beware, this content has severe ramifications on mental health. She was previously a happy and confident person with no interest in aliens & conspiracy theories.

[@minecraftify95]

did you send this to your mom? what did she say?

[@funforall9741]

It happens a lot man, we aren't the targets of these channels.

[@mattcolumbia7948]

They're just following the sop of the demoncrat party. Lie, trick, steal.

[@TechBuild]

The main worrything thing is that a lot of people new to the science topics who want to explore will come across these videos instead of authentic content.

[@SyntaxScout]

We need a list of those scam channels to have it handy so we can take action or simply avoid them.

[@de_vlad]

Amazing! Finally someone is publicly speaking about these channels! Was waiting for this for quite some time

[@jussts]

I was on vacation recently and was watching KZbin, without logging in, on my hotel's smart TV. After watching a couple science videos that I searched for, the algorithm started recommending almost exclusively this sort of sludge. This is definitely a problem.

[@Whatsinanameanyway13]

Every once in a while I will launch a private tab and open KZbin to see what someone who isn't logged in sees. The absolute garbage that comes up is dumbfounding. Now imagine what some kids are exposed to whose parents don't supervise their accounts.

[@EndoftheBeginning17]

@@Whatsinanameanyway13 I'm not amazed anymore. I've watched young creators who are in their early 20's and the level of stupidity is staggaring. most can read, but their real world experience is so poor that they get the simplest things wrong. We have widespread confusion happening with the adoption of ideas that contain the individuals confusion, but its so flimsy that the moment you even question it the confusion rears its head and you just see what amounts to a very stupid person in fact. I think it's going to get much worse to the point that society will do itself in.

[@terribleterrier1685]

@@EndoftheBeginning17 I worry also we are doomed. I just hope I'm being overly pessimistic, but it seems we are truly watching a breakdown common knowledge, further separating the layman from the expert. Similar things happened due to the efforts of the church in the middle ages and I worry we are headed towards a digital dark age where facts are just a matter of opinion and indistinguishable from the scam.

[@ricbat9078]

Ditto, logged into our company account and got these recommendations yet we don't watch anything from that account.

[@Whatsinanameanyway13]

@@EndoftheBeginning17 The main flaw with "Idiocracy" is it's assumption that it will take a long time for humanity to get dumb enough to not be able to handle its basic needs.

[@TheRealTomLauda]

I think we would have more chances of bringing down those channels by reporting them as AI generated, instead of going after the "quality" of the content they "produce". This is freaking scary how fast these tools are exploited against us.

[@Kenton.]

Seriously. A month ago I just learned that ai voices could start making voiceovers for videos. Now they seem to be everywhere.

[@tlrlml]

Sure! It's not like Google has it's own AI dreams, or that these videos might not be a part of the process of realizing that dream!

[@neatwheat]

It's a good thing that Google's AI developer left his job there (even though he was way into retirement age already) to be able to openly speak his mind and about his worries concerning AI. Gives us some insight. We can only guess how many more experts at Google are bound contractually to be silent about their work, right?

[@PowerScissor]

Google can't even handle their own portfolio of ½ baked current products...they definitely don't have the capability to tackle this. For all I know they removed the thumbsdown feature specifically for these fake AI channels.

[@animatewithdermot]

The only thing that will stop this is a change in LAW, not individual behaviour.

[@slypen7450]

You can't get rid of them! I use the "don't recommend tab" but they show back in a day or two.

[@TheinternetArchaeologist]

Pandora's box is already open man and the AI took hope with it

[@TangiersIntrigue]

The thing that gets me about this topic is how, if this escalates, actual content creators might find themselves struggling to cut through the noise. Monetization through sheer quantity, preying on youtube's preferences, may lead us to a situation in which, in order to actually pay the bills and actually have success, content creators will find automation increasingly attractive.

[@wastelander1015]

This reminds me of Amazon. At first they would allow small brands to do business there but when a small business become very lucrative, Amazon would create a similar product and sell for a lower price, making the other business to slowly lose money and go bankrupt. I wouldn't be surprised if youtube is doing the same thing to rip off creators.

[@dieptrieu6564]

Automation is the future, tho. But it need to be the good kind of automation, not these scams

[@wastelander1015]

@@dieptrieu6564 this is exactly the type of automation you're going to get. It's cheap and it makes money. Take for example the replacement of hotline agents by chat gpt. You really want potential suicidal people to be talking to robots instead of a human being?

[@WhatWillYouFind]

Ann and her channel How to Cook That is an example of this. 5 minute craps puts out dozens of videos a week and she barely does 1 a month. You can't beat content farms unless you're huge on the same level is PewDiePie once was, only accounts of that size have the reach to discount or refute bunk things in our era. We need a fundamental overhaul of the internet and it's regulations. Freedom is great, until you have little kids making bombs or literal terrorist cells pushing propaganda out to the masses. We need less profits and a more hands on approach to monitoring these things. With the advent of modern AI we will have the power to do so, whereas before it was impossible to scan or review the thousands upon tens of thousands of new video releases.

[@dieptrieu6564]

​@@wastelander1015 Automation already exist in our world. It's why factory can produce mass product in large scale. In case you want to say that automation doesn't work with creative products. Then you should know that animation have been using automation for a long ass time, now. Otherwise we still would have to hand draw everything from scratch You use one example to show automation is bad despite it have nothing to do with the topic we currently talk about. While also ignoring all the benefit automation can bring. That's just a bad argument

[@Texasbluesalley]

Thank you for documenting this. How the world’s biggest e-mail company who’s been catching spam for over a decade, cannot detect this stuff by now is really sad.

[@scottabc72]

Google has a strong financial incentive to not catch it

[@Nonameron]

​@@scottabc72 That being? As far as I know, saturating the recommendations with AI content will simply make people watch less videos and thus spend less time on KZbin.

[@lastwymsi]

​@@Nonameron You think it would drive people away, but it doesnt. People watch it while glazed over. People let the algorhythm auto play. Its not about older generations who will leave it, its about harnessing gen Z and below who grew up getting farmed by the Algo.

[@scottabc72]

@@Nonameron That would be nice if it were true but its not. KZbin has always benefited from having massive amounts of content which it can sell relatively cheaply to advertisers. More to the point this trash science content is usually pretty 'good' in its presentation and as this video pointed out, has features such as Elon Musk, ancient astronauts etc... that the algorithms know do get views. Cheap abundant content that gets views for the advertisers is what really matters.

[@jackdixon6681]

I think you're looking at things wrongly. Even when platforms *do* catch these things, it just means that the producers adjust. Look at the way people figured out that swearing leads to demonetisation, so everyone now says Frick. Or unalive instead of dead. Or copyrighted clips being mirrored to avoid claims. Or 10:01 length videos to get midroll ads. Anything google does to catch scam science videos would be at best a temporary measure

[@Wadokujin]

To be fair, we have never seen Snoke and Jocasta Nu in the same room together.

[@Cms-rl3wo]

I’ve noticed this in the aviation side of KZbin too. I’ve seen a few channels that just make the same fake headlines over and over again with ai generated thumbnails.

[@SirEatsCrackAlot]

My dad, one of the science communicator pioneers here in AUS, has spent most of his media career fighting against this kind of buzzword based style of reporting, and presenting pseudo science as though it's real science. As a long time viewer of your channel, I'm glad to see you not just opposed to this but actively informing people about it. Keep up the good fight, love your work.

[@rodericklenz5030]

Is your Dad Dr Karl?

[@Cookies4Wookiees]

It should be illegal for this fake shit to exist.

[@grumpus_hominidae]

I had a bad feeling about this video since he used KZbin as the subject, and, well, unfortunately, you have seen what happened. It's just not right. Kyle's trying to help, but KZbin obviously profits off these bullsh-t channels, and they'll punish creators who call it out.

[@itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

​@@grumpus_hominidae speaking of misinformation... KZbin, at most, boosts high click shitty channels but to say something as stupid as youtube purposefully pulls down videos like his when he literally now has half a million views. That's crap. People working at youtube don't watch and fact check these videos.

[@sergeysmyshlyaev9716]

' fighting against this kind of buzzword based style of reporting, and presenting pseudo science as though it's real science' - so he was fighting against Kurzgesagt and similar channels, right?

[@ArnoldWind]

I noticed this issue around 4 years ago, it's only become far worse since. KZbin literally don't care about misinformation on their platform, such as the removal of dislikes.

[@ar43r]

Same. I even watched riddler myself bevor realizing after a 2 vid that ther is no essence there

[@axeman2638]

yeah , they are too busy trying to remove the truth from their platform.

[@caramelapple5562]

if you also like knowing when videos have large amounts of dislikes, there are "return youtube dislike" extensions that at least seem to work well for me (of course i have no way of verifying)

[@axelignis3488]

Its not even just the channels, I get constant scam ads about how "this (veteran/doctor/college student) is gonna destroy the billion dollar (select industry)" in a robotic voice. And we can't even begin to talk abour all those insane phone app ads

[@AStoryteller-for-fun]

Yeah this had been a problem for quite sometime and is just growing day by day.

[@aaronwan479]

Is it just me or does bro look like thor

[@KeithC77-ux8vv]

When all else fails, I’ve always got that most esteemed of old institutions-the library 😊

[@BlackHistoryBuffTV]

It’s not just science, it’s every single niche you can think of

[@x-iso]

yeah, and it's been going on for a long while now, Smarter Everyday have a 4 year old video on this topic, about auto-generated content that started flooding trends and recommendations.

[@notDANGEROUSnot]

And in nearly every major language too.

[@BlackHistoryBuffTV]

@@notDANGEROUSnot It’s the new version of email spam. What’s really interesting is when you start asking yourself “If the content is from bot/Ai farms, how much of the Watch time is?” Because if the content and views are fake then this is a problem that youtube cannot fix as it will affect everything from advertising spend to music streams and the share price of some major companies. Fake content and views could be the sub prime mortgages of the streaming era ! Now that’s a topic so one needs to make a video about

[@randomshxt2099]

yes

[@adeadgirl13]

Yes! I was wondering about this because I saw this pattern in a lot of cooking channels. They at least have real video content of cooking. But all the footage across channels is similar and has good production value (doesn't feel like an individual trying to make a video in their kitchen). All the thumbnails and titles are same. There's no voiceover, just closed captions. Every channel is talking about how they like this dish so much that they make it everyday (for every third video). And they are reuploading the same videos with slightly different titles and thumbnails. And they upload very frequently and always at a fixed consistent frequency like they've been automated. And they either have a lot of views or very few views. (I guess that depends on which videos get picked up by the algorithm. And then they start spaming that same video over and over again.) I'm not sure if these are bots or just people taking the Mr. Beast approach to KZbin to an extreme. Reverse engineer what works and only optimize for views. Eventually everyone does the same thing coz they're copying each other.

[@WongCharoen]

I've spent my life as a teacher, and I feel you big time on this one, Kyle. Fun is fun, but when it actively interferes with true education, it is offensive and painful to my mind and soul. Keep fighting the good fight!

[@patricknez7258]

Well said 💯

[@RBRT02]

Crazy to see how many of those chanels don't have shorts. Even though that should be the easiest part to automate.

[@solstratus8444]

You are very right this needs to stop.

[@ceoatcrystalsoft4942]

Wish more people had morals like you. The problem is the apparent anonymity of the internet and thinking no one will ever be held accountable for the harm they do. The best we can do is support those who actually make a difference

[@djking881]

250$ is no small amount, thank you for helping people make a difference!

[@ObeyRL99]

@@djking881 The money is great for a good cause. But anonymity in the internet is super important. It’s a KZbin problem, not a anonymity problem.

[@sanctionh2993]

​@@ObeyRL99 Anonymity is the problem all over the internet, not just KZbin. And not just the internet either.

[@Nerb1]

@@djking881 250 philippino pesos is $5 US. And he is not the CEO at crystalsoft since they are in thialand and use thai baht. This highlighted comment is part of the problem that Kyle is talking about. We all have to be more wary.

[@LeTtRrZ]

@@sanctionh2993 Anonymity is a tool that, like any other, can be used or abused. Anonymity isn’t an issue in and of itself. Misuse of it is.

[@alanthefisher]

We have the same problem over in my corner of "infrastructure KZbin" too. I foresee this becoming increasingly more problematic for miss-information and combating it. Thanks for making this video

[@dani_lla]

I never thought I'd see the armchair urbanist himself in the comments of science thor...

[@sarimsalman2698]

I think the new wave of "trendy urbanism" has exploded you guys channels' but also led to people trying to farm all the new engagement. Love your videos btw, never thought I could be interested in trains, of all things, but here I am!

[@AfricanLionBat]

I had no clue infrastructure KZbin was a thing but that is awesome in my opinion

[@hypothalapotamus5293]

Honestly, looking at the viewcounts to these science videos, I think it's not a huge problem yet. They spam the videos out in a way that no human could, but they do not have a viewcount that I would associate with a human audience. What we are seeing is bots making content for bots. I think the longer term problem is that AI isn't useful for generating truth or new content without costly human intervention, but bad actors are going to put it on auto pilot producing plagiarizing content that is altered only very subtly. This will eventually have a severe impact on new content creation.

[@tomsmith6513]

This video that we just played is itself a scam video. lol :)

[@dr.timsmith5539]

I can usually tell within a few seconds if it’s bs or not

[@lgnoramaLama]

Very important video! I've recognized that for longer now and they sneak into your feed so easily even with conspiracys and straight up nonsense unrelated to science or anything you watch, thats dangerous...

[@Ginger_bit]

The "Spam and Scams" report category is probably KZbins most used option, and unfortunately the least enforced. That shotgun method does more than just overwhelm the algorithm, it also overwhelms the last two people at YT who actually do manual reviews.

[@Nippleless_Cage]

What's a better idea?

[@AylienYu]

I actually bet they have a mass reviewing system where they definitely notice if something gets reported multiple times. I believe mass reporting a scam most likely does work. At this day and age theres most likely not much individual manual reviewing involved.

[@Ginger_bit]

@@Nippleless_Cage Have over 100k subs and complain on twitter. In my 10+ years on the platform, I have rarely, if ever, seen KZbin address something outside of this exact scenario.

[@Ginger_bit]

@@AylienYu I'll believe it when I see it.

[@jensenraylight8011]

@@Nippleless_Cage the better idea is, if you saw a video containing Elon Musk face or any AI, it was an auto spam flag

[@accordingtoangela]

I recently found out by accident how they are making this. There’s an editor called Descript. It’s $144/year and you record your voice and it learns your cadences so when you copy and paste your script that is mostly likely farmed through chat gpt, it is recited automatically in your voice. To top it off, they have drag and drop access to millions of stock images and video. Takes 30 minutes tops. Its very….concerning.

[@freelancerthe2561]

so they fed it a bunch of Kurzgesagt (or another narrator voice for that matter), and it learned to mimic it? The new era of deepfakes is under way.

[@cerebrumexcrement]

a lot of these videos dont even bother sounding human

[@jackd1582]

@@cerebrumexcrement they certainly can't do nuance and inflection. Tone is all wrong . Dead giveaway is end of sentences 💀

[@jackd1582]

This needs to be pinned

[@syproful]

It’s the AI feedback loop we all should be afraid of. What is credible or not over the long term. For that i’m sure that internet will become a fully signed environment. Including plain text such as ASCII. It’s also the only way to see who or what(AI) wrote something. The wildwest that is the internet still now, will have to move to let’s say the darknet.

[@TheLucanicLord]

Wait, they claim an infringement and KZbin just take their word for it and hand over the ad revenue?

[@notsure1198]

I knew it!!! Makes me so angry. It’s bad enough we have to deal with ads and Raid Shadow Legends… now we have this garbage. THANK YOU for showing us how to fight back.

[@jae52247]

I am glad I am not the only one that noticed it. Even during the commissioning phase of the James Webb Space Telescope, there were videos about “scary” or “shocking” discoveries that it made.

[@JustABaptistApoligist]

Especially one channel called Future Unity, total scam and fake

[@frozenthirdyear]

@@JustABaptistApoligist Good to know my gut feeling was right on it being BS!

[@pressplayulysses]

​@@JustABaptistApoligist I basically blocked them. Their videos will make you go "Yeah, we know that, yeah that one also, yeah, yea-WILL YOU GET TO THE POINT ALREADY?!?"

[@Nordlicht05]

Also pseudo newsletters makes that.... Shocked the world .... XY feared the new discovery... If not simple piss me off clickbait, pure shit 😂

[@robertmaxey5406]

I took note of the same thing. I might do my pumpkin pie video and reveal the shocking things they don't want you to know. Or perhaps a makeup channel.

[@GaymerJenn]

Sorry KZbin unfairly demonetized this video. Your fans appreciate your hard work and integrity. ❤️

[@derekwhidden9730]

They did? It would seem then that KZbin gains as much as the spammers then.

[@evilsharkey8954]

KZbin makes a lot of money off of junk from content farms. They claim they don’t support such material, but they totally do. Pointing it out is an easy way to get demonetized.

[@cherrydragon3120]

​@@derekwhidden9730 fcourse. KZbin gets money by clicks just like the creators.

[@cherrydragon3120]

​@@evilsharkey8954 if they didn't support these people/content they would have actively removed it

[@niedas3426]

@@evilsharkey8954 That's such bull. Sorry but while I'm not exactly fond of YT, they know it's in their best interest to not let these videos flood their site. A site with user generated content lives and dies by that content. Though sometimes, when I look at how they demonetise creators and let bots run rampant, I'm not entirely sure how in touch the C suites are with the state of youtube. I'm sure there's a lot of people at YT who have their heads on straight, but all it takes is one person in a position of power to not aknowledge the problem, and then you're effed. My best bet is that they want to keep moderation costs as low as possible while keeping a minimum so that it doesn't become a lawless wasteland.

[@coreywest9305]

I'm glad I figured this out in the early days of this. I still get channel recommendations like this, but I know better than to fall for that stuff

[@Rubbly]

More and more AI TTS videos! When visiting my Grandma, she just had one playing in the background, it was so distracting to me but she couldn't tell the difference!

[@shiva369]

I've noticed the increase in these spam channels in history subjects, too. It's one of the looming AI downsides we can all see happening literally before our eyes

[@ringofkaren]

I love the history channel where they tell you every historic figure was actually black, Netflix is not far of anyway.

[@zyxw2000]

There are plenty of good history and science channels, if you look. I bookmark them in my browser and keep returning to them. BBC Earth, Stefan Milo, PBS Eons, Nature, National Geographic, The History Guy, Chicago Stories, American Experience, etc. I don't use YT's algorithm, and find good channels myself.

[@zyxw2000]

@@ringofkaren No, History Channel says everyone is an alien.

[@shiva369]

@zyxw2000 yes, I'm very familiar with most of those and will check out the others you mentioned. Cheers

[@zyxw2000]

@@shiva369 I've been on YT many years, and just learned recently about the algorithm. I've never used it, always found my own channels.

[@AUKronos]

This epidemic of science spam reached my algorithm quite quickly as it's a genre I've been following for a few years from genuine content creators and channels like PBSSpaceTime, Cool Worlds, SEA, History of the Universe (just to name a few) The common trend in determining which channels aren't worth our time are the frequency of the uploads. If a channel is pumping out multiple uploads a day, it's not genuine. By quickly checking the upload frequency, you're not giving them views. Thank you for bringing this to light and exposing the clickbait side of this genre.

[@Mythicalreign22]

I love SEA

[@Pulko172]

We noticed that some users are avoiding some videos based on when they were uploaded. This hurts the creators so we decided to remove the info of when the video was uploaded.

[@chubbydinosaur9148]

​@@Pulko172 oh god no, don't give them ideas

[@oskarskalski2982]

@@Mythicalreign22 Me too, SEA is great for listening just before going to sleep:), the same with history of the universe. And for those scam channels, I used the same technique that Kyle is describing. And when I'm seeing Michio Kaku my alarm bells go off:D. It's sad to see that such a nice science communicator went so far off.

[@tpbenze5032]

I’ve had this problem too I’m glad he made a video I thought I was going crazy. I’ve been a big fan of scishow and pbs and all the science type channels for years so this hit me pretty quickly once they popped up

[@WhoopDePoopDeScoop]

"The bong rips of science content" love it

[@RBRT02]

One of the few videos with a small short description of the contents in the description. More people should do that!

[@kelbybrewer2038]

As a former Ridddle subscriber that left when they started spewing about how the Moon is apparently hollow, I've been waiting for someone like you to talk about this.

[@davemccombs]

Aw, you missed them claiming scientists found evidence for dragons the other day.

[@m3redgt]

@@davemccombs i like the other theory better that they were real because ancient people around the world (who had no way of communicating about those creatures) had art about them but there aren't any fossils of dragons because they had hollow bones like birds and they degraded too quickly to turn fossil

[@hiimapop7755]

Left when they started going wild with their video ideas after their 1 googol years video, which was pretty much at the start of their channel years ago. Regretted subbing to them after seeing their uploads over the course of a year since their videos were so out of touch like the fake science channels that are common today. They're even more disappointing to look at today, just looking at their most recent uploads.

[@m3redgt]

@@hiimapop7755 easy money, minimal effort it gets to peoples head... also the fact that this video here is still up.. but their "reply" isn't.. speaks volumes

[@grendab]

dude same they used to make half-decant stuff and then they just didnt

[@JabberW00kie]

I’ve never seen your channel before, but I’m glad someone is calling this out. I too began noticing the similarities between these channels and can usually spot them immediately when they pop up in my algorithm. They often have sensational trigger words like “terrifying” or “shocking” or “scientists can’t explain” in the title. It’s somewhat similar to tabloids from back in the day.

[@kindlin]

This is one of the better popsci channels, along with all the others he name dropped. If you don't recognize any of those, either, they are all highly recommended (scishow (like 5+ different version), veritasium, vsause, steve mould, so, so many).

[@warrensteel9954]

This channel is well worth a sub.

[@TheRenofox]

Same to both. The science spam phenomenon just popped up like decoy links and comments in the past. All as a direct results of KZbin removing the downvotes.

[@UnderGroundMerlin]

@@kindlin StyroPyro is another good creator. CodysLab, Nile Red, Anton Petrov is a new one I found like a year ago. He delivers some really good space information. Geologyhub for seismic activity stuff.

[@panner11]

@@TheRenofox I also blame Bright Side for this. It's a "science" channel with almost 50 mil subs and a few years ago became the most subscribed "science" channel out there. But all it is a nonstop factory of misleading and poorly researched content that uploads more than once a day. Although the content isn't auto-generated, it becoming the most subscribed "science" channel despite it's poor quality showed that you find success in this genre through clickbait alone. I'm sure these channels saw bright side as evidence of feasibility for the success of their scams. This format of video is very reminiscent of typical Bright Side videos. The worst part is the only way these channels including Bright Side get any views is probably because of kids. The videos aren't clever and it's hard to see many adults that would find it engaging.

[@ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg]

Thanks for the how to complain section. Going to apply it to the Discovery Institute videos.

[@patrowan7206]

People not only seem increasingly unable to recognize quality and substance when they see it, but may actively be rejecting it.

[@user95395]

for sure, reality isn't hella lit like word salad clickbait that you "huh huh huh... RATIO'd!!!" to

[@haraldgriefbacon1373]

It is almost always very easy to spot misinformation, whether in science, history, finance, or politics. The real problem is that so many people don't really care, as long as they are being told what they want to hear.

[@jettmthebluedragon]

Yep it’s true 😐it’s like look up spooky s house of jump scares and read specimen 11s jump scare speach 😐sometimes I say let the stupid people play themselves 😐if your loved one dies from your stupidity that’s YOUR problem 😑

[@Gusenichka925]

​@@jettmthebluedragon?

[@starlight4649]

If you have a decent understanding of any topic, spotting misinformation is super easy But the target audience doesn't have a decent understanding. It's either kids or adults who don't know the difference.

[@wildflower1397]

The problem is that those who are ignorant about the topic are most likely to believe the misinformation. Yet, they are the ones who most need the education.

[@jettmthebluedragon]

@@wildflower1397 true 😑to me I don’t believe in anything to me it’s rather true or not 😐

[@kylehill]

*Thanks for watching.* Who knows if this will help, bit I'll do what I can.

[@chimkinNuggz]

Thank u for making this vid. Ive seen science videos like these channels recommened to me all the time 😒

[@Stickmanght]

Thanks for calling out this BS that is polluting our collective efforts to learn, and educate.

[@historicaltidbits]

I'm confident it helps.

[@chronosschiron]

man you are like me i however go right at them its cause they use flashy thumb nails and if you look at them they are all ina kinda group of people that are and have been faking

[@chronosschiron]

they steal old shows put in stuff thats now wrong add there own politics and misinformation and its put up wiht a thumbnail and it is very offensive to see people tought string theory when years ago now its been proven false

[@katecone2295]

It blows my mind just how many subscribers some of these channels have. I'm going to be more vigilant when I choose to sub to a channel.