YouTube has recently been secretly using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance users’ videos without their knowledge or permission. The changes are almost imperceptible, but some critics say they give an “AI-mediated” feel that distorts reality.
Rick Beaton, the creator of the YouTube channel, noticed that his face looked “somehow strange.” “It was like I was wearing makeup, but I didn’t know it,” he says. His friend, Rhett Schul, also noticed the same thing in his videos and created a video that has garnered more than half a million views.
The topic of AI-edited videos has been discussed before, with examples from Netflix’s 80s sitcoms and the photo features of Google Pixel smartphones. We may be gradually starting to perceive reality not as it is, but as technology “digitizes” us. “AI is becoming a medium that shapes our lives and reality,” says expert Samuel Woolley. “If people learn that companies are repurposing videos without the creators’ permission, trust could be eroded altogether.”
