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The writer makes it seem as if society itself is at risk from being ruined because there are crappy videos on YouTube. I couldn’t care less. It is YouTube’s ima

The writer makes it seem as if society itself is at risk from being ruined because there are crappy videos on YouTube. I couldn’t care less. It is YouTube’s image that is at risk if anything and to be honest I find it super clever to generate videos like this to earn money. Very out of the box. YouTube is just a service that is out to make money out of bored and media-addicted people. It isn’t a public service that is being exploited.

laythea 9y ago
Couldn't agree more. Same to be said for Steam, the games service.
convexfunction 9y ago
It seems likely that at least some of this automatically-generated content is being viewed mostly by bots. i.e., fraud.
amelius 9y ago
> and to be honest I find it super clever to generate videos like this to earn money. Very out of the box. I don't know. When ideas like this cross my mind, I immediately think about how they will be shut down by Google anyway, so I don't really bother. I guess in this case the bot-creator was lucky. Another point is of course that I can use my coding skills for better things.
vanderZwan 9y ago
> YouTube is just a service that is out to make money out of bored and media-addicted people. It isn’t a public service that is being exploited. You're not a parent, are you? EDIT: neither am I, for the record. But I think a lot of the replies here are a bit too quick to lay the blame on the less tech-savvy parents, who may just be using YouTube in the good faith that an app designed for children will not auto-queue disturbing content (also, the linked article makes a larger point about the "infrastructural violence" of the internet that we should not dismiss to quickly). https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...
- rock_hard 9y ago
  From one parent to another: Parents need to stop asking the world to accommodate for them! If you don't think your kids should use YouTube then don't let them...easy as that! It's like with cookies...if you really want to I'll bet you find a way to stop you kids from eating them.
  - ricardobeat 9y ago
    Except that “online video” is now a synonym for YouTube. Most people are not aware of this and think “just don’t use YouTube” is as extreme as “then stop watching TV”.
    - 21savageaf 9y ago
      No, it's more akin to "don't watch these channels on TV". There is plenty of content served on sites/apps where preventing children from seeing inappropriate things is a primary focus. It's like locking down your TV to only show cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Besides, putting your child's productive energy into more productive activities that are not watching either TV or online videos will serve them better.
      - ceejayoz 9y ago
        > No, it's more akin to "don't watch these channels on TV". Sort of. If I let my kid watch Peppa Pig on the TV, I can be reasonably assured that it won't suddenly take a turn (while I'm in the next room washing dishes) into Peppa Pig having sex with Barney just before they're both ground up into sausage. The same isn't true on YouTube.
        Mononokay 9y ago
        That gives me an idea, actually. Do you have an RSS reader of choice?
      - ricardobeat 9y ago
kbos87 9y ago
There’s nothing admirable about lowest common denominator tactics like this, and it isn’t that out of the box. You just have to be desperate enough and sleazy enough to want to do it. Are these videos an existential threat? No. Are they a net negative for the internet and everyone who gets value and utility out of good content? Absolutely.
- debt 9y ago
  Idk I think this is just a poor implementation of a really good idea. Don't get me wrong, spam videos aren't a good thing. But I do think removing the role of an editor and cinematagrapher and being able to programmatically convert a script/screenplay instantly into a useful video content seems like a great idea; the right approach. In addition, something like this could also create internationalized video content very quickly.
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    IMHO, automating the artistic process of everybody/thing you think less important defeats the purpose. Why not go further? Once we can determine an affordable way to programmatically stimulate every necessary region of our brain to bring about emotions and the effects of nostalgic or sentimental introspection traditionally stimulated by beautiful artwork, then we can just plug in and go for the ride and get on with our daily work.
    - creep 9y ago
      Brave New World style, love it!!! But seriously, that is not what art is. Art is not created automatically by a machine. We can program a 3d printer to spit out an exact copy of the veiled virgin, but will we find it as beautiful? Certainly not. Part of the charm of the artistic process is that a human being's perspective becomes illuminated, in part, in the medium. The natural imperfections of that perception are made beautiful and become less like imperfections and more like variations. A machine, as of yet, cannot do this. A computer program cannot have this multiplicity of perspective which is at once flawed and beautiful. It cannot understand the human emotive experience beyond what is input-output-- and the human emotive experience, as we can all attest, is not composed of input-output events. If we let the machines make our art for us, or to artificially induce the emotions in us, we have lost all understanding of what art is. Art is not utilitarian. We cannot have machines perform art.
loco5niner 9y ago
> and to be honest I find it super clever to generate videos like this to earn money. Very out of the box. Yeah, except for the whole "negative contribution to society" part.
- mosselman 9y ago
  What society? You mean YouTube? That isn't society, it is a company that has a business model that is based on getting people to waste as much of their time as possible on YouTube so that they can earn money by selling ads to those people. I find it hard to see how YouTube == Society.
  - loco5niner 9y ago
    > What society? You mean YouTube? > it is a company that has a business model that is based on getting people to waste as much of their time as possible on YouTube Society = people. There is good stuff on youtube, and there is bad stuff on youtube. Why do you want to be part of the problem? Seems pretty selfish to me.

laythea 9y ago

Couldn't agree more. Same to be said for Steam, the games service.

convexfunction 9y ago

It seems likely that at least some of this automatically-generated content is being viewed mostly by bots. i.e., fraud.

amelius 9y ago

> and to be honest I find it super clever to generate videos like this to earn money. Very out of the box. I don't know. When ideas like this cross my mind, I immediately think about how they will be shut down by Google anyway, so I don't really bother. I guess in this case the bot-creator was lucky. Another point is of course that I can use my coding skills for better things.

vanderZwan 9y ago

> YouTube is just a service that is out to make money out of bored and media-addicted people. It isn’t a public service that is being exploited. You're not a parent, are you? EDIT: neither am I, for the record. But I think a lot of the replies here are a bit too quick to lay the blame on the less tech-savvy parents, who may just be using YouTube in the good faith that an app designed for children will not auto-queue disturbing content (also, the linked article makes a larger point about the "infrastructural violence" of the internet that we should not dismiss to quickly). https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...

rock_hard 9y ago
From one parent to another: Parents need to stop asking the world to accommodate for them! If you don't think your kids should use YouTube then don't let them...easy as that! It's like with cookies...if you really want to I'll bet you find a way to stop you kids from eating them.
- ricardobeat 9y ago
  Except that “online video” is now a synonym for YouTube. Most people are not aware of this and think “just don’t use YouTube” is as extreme as “then stop watching TV”.
  - 21savageaf 9y ago
    No, it's more akin to "don't watch these channels on TV". There is plenty of content served on sites/apps where preventing children from seeing inappropriate things is a primary focus. It's like locking down your TV to only show cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Besides, putting your child's productive energy into more productive activities that are not watching either TV or online videos will serve them better.
    - ceejayoz 9y ago
      > No, it's more akin to "don't watch these channels on TV". Sort of. If I let my kid watch Peppa Pig on the TV, I can be reasonably assured that it won't suddenly take a turn (while I'm in the next room washing dishes) into Peppa Pig having sex with Barney just before they're both ground up into sausage. The same isn't true on YouTube.
      - Mononokay 9y ago
        That gives me an idea, actually. Do you have an RSS reader of choice?
    - ricardobeat 9y ago

kbos87 9y ago

There’s nothing admirable about lowest common denominator tactics like this, and it isn’t that out of the box. You just have to be desperate enough and sleazy enough to want to do it. Are these videos an existential threat? No. Are they a net negative for the internet and everyone who gets value and utility out of good content? Absolutely.

debt 9y ago
Idk I think this is just a poor implementation of a really good idea. Don't get me wrong, spam videos aren't a good thing. But I do think removing the role of an editor and cinematagrapher and being able to programmatically convert a script/screenplay instantly into a useful video content seems like a great idea; the right approach. In addition, something like this could also create internationalized video content very quickly.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  IMHO, automating the artistic process of everybody/thing you think less important defeats the purpose. Why not go further? Once we can determine an affordable way to programmatically stimulate every necessary region of our brain to bring about emotions and the effects of nostalgic or sentimental introspection traditionally stimulated by beautiful artwork, then we can just plug in and go for the ride and get on with our daily work.
  - creep 9y ago
    Brave New World style, love it!!! But seriously, that is not what art is. Art is not created automatically by a machine. We can program a 3d printer to spit out an exact copy of the veiled virgin, but will we find it as beautiful? Certainly not. Part of the charm of the artistic process is that a human being's perspective becomes illuminated, in part, in the medium. The natural imperfections of that perception are made beautiful and become less like imperfections and more like variations. A machine, as of yet, cannot do this. A computer program cannot have this multiplicity of perspective which is at once flawed and beautiful. It cannot understand the human emotive experience beyond what is input-output-- and the human emotive experience, as we can all attest, is not composed of input-output events. If we let the machines make our art for us, or to artificially induce the emotions in us, we have lost all understanding of what art is. Art is not utilitarian. We cannot have machines perform art.

loco5niner 9y ago

> and to be honest I find it super clever to generate videos like this to earn money. Very out of the box. Yeah, except for the whole "negative contribution to society" part.

mosselman 9y ago
What society? You mean YouTube? That isn't society, it is a company that has a business model that is based on getting people to waste as much of their time as possible on YouTube so that they can earn money by selling ads to those people. I find it hard to see how YouTube == Society.
- loco5niner 9y ago
  > What society? You mean YouTube? > it is a company that has a business model that is based on getting people to waste as much of their time as possible on YouTube Society = people. There is good stuff on youtube, and there is bad stuff on youtube. Why do you want to be part of the problem? Seems pretty selfish to me.