I watch a lot of YouTube. Most of what I watch on YouTube is related to music or video games, but I also have a penchant for videos about cooking, architecture, and the history of 20th century technology. A couple of my favorite channels are Tasting History with Max Miller and Phil Edwards.
By this point all of the algorithms know I am a 50-something GenXer, with a moderate affliction of nostalgia. So as much as I know listicles (or the video equivalent) are clickbait… well, I take the bait.
So, you know just as well as the algorithm did that I would not scroll past a video called “15 FORGOTTEN Sandwiches That FADED From Your Family Table.”
Go ahead, watch it.
I was struck immediately by a few things: first, the weird overuse of “aged film” effects on the apparently stock video clips that vaguely corresponded to the sandwiches being described.
Next, I noticed a weird monotony to the narrator’s delivery. I didn’t like it, but I figured it was just his style.
But that was when things got weird. Out of nowhere, the introduction of the “Mock Ham Salad Sandwich” was spoken in a different voice, with a strong Asian accent. Then it was back to Mr. Monotone.
Suddenly it all clicked. This entire video was AI generated.
I’m not sure if the video content itself is AI-generated, or if it’s just… um… AI-concatenated. I didn’t scrutinize it super closely, but I didn’t see any of the telltale signs, like mangled text, deformed human hands, objects spontaneously transforming into something else.
It might all just be stock footage. But a) I do know AI-generated video has improved a lot recently, and b) it also seems unlikely that they’d have found enough marginally-relevant (and some of this is very marginal) stock video footage for each of these sandwiches.
I was struck specifically by the pimento cheese sandwich, and how the shot of it shows a paper wrapper with the Masters logo. Yes, the pimento cheese sandwich is inextricably tied to the Masters golf event at Augusta National in Georgia. Why wasn’t that detail mentioned in the narration? (It’s probably worth noting that this is a fact I’m able to recall only because I saw a Facebook post about it a few days ago.)
The channel that posted this video only has two videos, both posted this week. Combined, they have fewer than 1000 views.
Both of their videos share a similar format. But what really freaked me out was that my YouTube home page also had another video from a different channel that was similarly nostalgia-stoking and, based on the little preview that played, had the same telltale “aged film” effect.
Who is behind this crap? How much worse is this all going to get?