whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
posted by Wretch729 at 11:14 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

Last night, a friend showed me some videos Youtube Shorts has been recommending to her. The follow a pattern: a photogenic animal is in some kind of distress, and on top of it is a photorealistically-rendered, but obviously completely fictional, parasite of some sort. One was a bizarre creature that looked like a fevered dream of Junji Ito with multiple tube-like appendages attached to a silver wolf cub. Another was some kind of life-sucking snail.

Her Shorts recommendations had three of these. They're all incredibly surreal and upsetting. And the version of the Youtube app on her iPad had no obvious way to dismiss them: the three dots menu for dismissing the Shorts section didn't work at all, and the button on the videos themselves only had an option to Report Content. (We did for one of them.)

It turns out she wasn't logged in (and she avoids doing so because two-factor authentication is a huge hassle for her), we're hopeful that once she is logged in Youtube's algorithm will figure out these things are extremely distasteful for her.
posted by JHarris at 11:21 AM on March 25 [5 favorites]

Move over creepypasta, it's time for creepyslop.
posted by tclark at 11:31 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

It turns out she wasn't logged in (and she avoids doing so because two-factor authentication is a huge hassle for her), we're hopeful that once she is logged in Youtube's algorithm will figure out these things are extremely distasteful for her.


For what it's worth, I have no idea at all what people are talking about when they complain about this stuff. I watch a lot of, like, video game thinkpieces and woodworking videos and general-purpose edutainment. And I get a lot more of the same in my recommendations. I'm not saying it never wanders afield - in particular anything with even a hint of politics might end up more either doomery or right-wing than I'd prefer - but the kind of brainrot/gibberish/Junji-Ito-fantasy stuff we're talking about.... I have just literally never even seen it in my own Youtube experience and I have to take on faith that this isn't all made up. So I'd be optimistic that her own experience will be a lot better if/when she's logged in.
posted by Tomorrowful at 11:33 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

I have tried by blocking AI creators on instagram, but the tidal wave has been to great and I've resorted to just scrolling past as fast as possible. If I stop to really analyze it I fear that it will add more to my algorithm.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:35 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

YouTube does keep track of you whether you are logged in or not... As an example, they are rolling out a Premium Lite subscription option. When I visit this overview page in any browser on my personal machine, it helpfully provides an almost blank page that only says "This offer is not available." When I log in from the same network, but with my work laptop, I get the full "Introducing Premium Lite" page with all of the details. I tried logging into my account with my work machine and then it told me it wasn't available as a subscription option...

Most interestingly, I only access YouTube in a special profile in Safari, which hides my IP address. But FireFox and Chrome which report a different IP address are both being blocked as well, even though I've never even logged into YouTube with either browser, so it looks like they are doing some sort of sophisticated device finger printing.
posted by rambling wanderlust at 11:52 AM on March 25

Years ago, I said the primary use case of AI (specifically, Large Language Models) is generating undetectable spam.

Nothing has happened to change my mind on this.
posted by AlSweigart at 11:52 AM on March 25 [13 favorites]

For what it's worth, I have no idea at all what people are talking about when they complain about this stuff.

Let me tell you my own experience. I maintain a blog of video game esoterica, and since we update daily, I am constantly looking for new things to post about. Youtube, sometimes, is an important part of this search. So my Youtube recommendations are constantly filled with video game things.

I am not all about video games though. Ideally, after well over a decade of use, Youtube should have a pretty good handle on what I like and what I don't. You'd think that, but in practice Youtube is heavily biased towards whatever I last saw, probably hoping to inspire a binge.

I've told this story here before, but it bears repeating... I was catsitting for a friend about a couple of years ago, just dropping in once a day to make sure the little imp got some stimulation. I felt bad that he wasn't getting more, so I had the idea of setting up a spare computer on their floor and having it run a playlist of multi-hour videos of birds, mice and other cat-fascinating creatures. The cat didn't seem to have gotten much out of it, but Youtube was convinced that these videos were my new favorite thing, and it took several days to get their memory out of its system.

More recently, I wen through a phase of obsession with the computer game Balatro, and I watched a fair bit of a couple of prominent Youtubers who played it a lot. Then I came to realize, I think I'm done with Balatro? For now at least? But Youtube has been unwilling to let it drop, and although I stopped watching the videos over two weeks ago, it still shows up in my recommendation every day, despite me continually marking each one Not Interested.

When I've done a lot of searching for game videos to post about, eventually Youtube's homepage reaches the point of ambient entropy. Every video is something I don't want to watch. I have to go on a killing spree, marking all the ones that I just want gone, to get them off the page, because if I don't they'll just hang around indefinitely. The system is supposed to just know what I want, but it really doesn't. There are certain kinds of features that I absolutely detest in Youtube personalities (hyper-edited videos starring a grinning young white male with a "wassup fellow kids" attitude and his face way too close to the camera) that you'd think Youtube would have figured out I hate, but I keep getting them.
posted by JHarris at 11:54 AM on March 25 [7 favorites]

The weird AI videos are all over the place. One of my main uses for Instagram has been following comic book creators. So of course, lately my recommendations feed has included some very weird and disturbing AI videos with female superheroes in weird danger and/or with torn costumes. Strongly dislike.
posted by learning from frequent failure at 11:54 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]

I have discovered that when the YouTube algorithm is not delivering content I want to watch, sending an email to a friend from a Gmail account spammed full of keywords of what I want to watch produces relevant videos in my recommendations within a few hours.

I no longer know what to feel about these things.
posted by telophase at 12:09 PM on March 25 [13 favorites]

but the kind of brainrot/gibberish/Junji-Ito-fantasy stuff we're talking about

I've found that there is a bit of a spectrum with this stuff (at least what I've seen Youtube). I haven't seen what JHarris described but I have seen, because I watch old movie content, get a lot of "contemporary film X envisioned as a 1950s film" and I would describe that stuff in the similar way to the stuff described in the article - artless junk. As AlSweigart says above, I've also started to see more nuanced or innocuous AI material that's made to look like a standard history or lite hobby video but if you watch closely you can notice it is generated entirely via a LLM AI, with pictures scraped from the web or from another generative AI and voiced by software. Totally will slip under your radar if you weren't paying attention - I watched one on vegetables to grow in my climatic zone and only realised halfway through that it was entirely generated by AI and only noticed because it repeated information and was slightly inaccurate.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:16 PM on March 25 [4 favorites]

More recently, I wen through a phase of obsession with the computer game Balatro, and I watched a fair bit of a couple of prominent Youtubers who played it a lot. Then I came to realize, I think I'm done with Balatro? For now at least? But Youtube has been unwilling to let it drop, and although I stopped watching the videos over two weeks ago, it still shows up in my recommendation every day, despite me continually marking each one Not Interested.


Yeah, this I absolutely run into. The algorithm is bad at recommending me things that are not just More Of the Same. But that's a different kind of failure state than "I see you like videos of linguistics nerds talking about Old English etymoloigies, here's an AI-generated rat-goblin eating a bunny."
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:25 PM on March 25 [2 favorites]

A couple of times, I've reported a video with black men's faces pasted onto monkeys fighting over a box of bananas. It doesn't contravene any Instagram content rules. It felt good to delete my account.
posted by brachiopod at 12:29 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]

But that's a different kind of failure state than "I see you like videos of linguistics nerds talking about Old English etymoloigies, here's an AI-generated rat-goblin eating a bunny."

Yes, they're really opposite states. In my case, it only shows things directly and obviously related to other things I've recently watched. The alternative is it going completely off the rails.

I only brought up my situation because someone said they didn't see how it could happen, it was really a derail. This new thing is really bizarre. I wonder if it's related to that thing some years back (does it still happen?) where YT would just randomly throw some far-right videos into your feed and see if they took?
posted by JHarris at 12:30 PM on March 25 [2 favorites]

Images and video were a mistake. MetaFilter was right to hold firm against their evil tide. We must RETVRN.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:35 PM on March 25 [9 favorites]

YMMV but after I installed uBlock Origin and PiHole my Youtube recs logged in or not have been what you'd expect for what I view. That is no creepy AI slop or weird mukbang stuff. I can't say which is better or if it's both, but a data point to consider.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:51 PM on March 25 [2 favorites]

I no longer know what to feel about these things.

Elle Cordova knows how you feel.

posted by Reverend John at 12:58 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this I absolutely run into. The algorithm is bad at recommending me things that are not just More Of the Same. But that's a different kind of failure state than "I see you like videos of linguistics nerds talking about Old English etymoloigies, here's an AI-generated rat-goblin eating a bunny."

It takes specific tailoring to get all your proper Early Middle English linguistics vids showing in perfect harmony with the correct horrible goblin vids.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:06 PM on March 25

For science and to supplement the links in the article, can anybody link some of the parasite/ goblin/ torture/ mukbang AI horror things that they're referencing here?
(I just tried YouTube logged-out in an incognito window, and the recs are approximately the same anodyne things I'd watch normally, so it seems I'm outside this algorithmic bubble for now.)
posted by Bardolph at 1:20 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

The article has many links to many example videos, the ones I clicked on loaded even without being logged into instagram…
posted by rambling wanderlust at 1:23 PM on March 25

It would be interesting to see a screenshot or two of YouTube’s recommendations. Definitely don’t want them leaking into my account though!
posted by rambling wanderlust at 1:27 PM on March 25

AI keeps showing me this nightmare huge blood-sucking orange parasite with yellow bristles on its head and red around its neck and its mouth parts keep moving and spewing....
Never mind.
posted by BlueHorse at 2:39 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]

The article has many links to many example videos, the ones I clicked on loaded even without being logged into instagram…

Yes, this worked for me as well. It's a bit odd because it seems like Instagram generally blocks access when not logged in. It's easily the most aggressive social media site on that score, with Facebook a close second.

This seems related to the "outrage bait" videos, where they pretend to do something (e.g. cooking) but add nonsense and clearly wrong things. They get clicks/views because of the "what is this BS" reaction.
posted by netowl at 4:03 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

the "outrage bait" videos, where they pretend to do something (e.g. cooking) but add nonsense and clearly wrong things

Pfft. Pack of HowToBasic wannabes.
posted by flabdablet at 4:25 PM on March 25

Yes I have seen many of these videos JHarris describes. I get them when not logged in, and I have watched many with folks at the office out of weird fascination including:
Lion with turtle nest in its back
Sea creatures with barnacles of all different sizes completely covering their bodies, which are sometimes filled with bees.
Or a giant rabbit with honeycomb bees all over it.
Sometimes, a random other very cute animal is able to alert a human to help the distressed beast. Once, a baby reindeer with antlers saving a wolf covered in barnacle bees, and once a leopard cub helping a lion with a lion-sized sea anemone thinger with lots of legs, on its back
Most of the animals are saved by helpful “humans”.
OH and less gross ones more recently: horse gives birth to 4 foals!
Peacock carrying like 100 peacock babies on its back.
I could go on. I will stop.
posted by Glinn at 5:13 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

Love that we have invented a new non-corporeal form of pollution!
posted by srboisvert at 5:40 PM on March 25

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