by Wallace Wyss –
Enuff already! I don’t know how many times, when I am choosing a YouTube video from the little boxes on the right, I choose one that turns out to be fake. This is especially annoying in the car world. For instance, let’s say that they say this is the new Karmann Ghia. There is no new Karmann Ghia expected (not that it is a bad idea). But we see an AI-generated view of a car that does not exist, will not exist, and will waste your time looking at it.
In one YouTube video decrying these fakes they had a letter from a Subaru dealer employee who said they get at least three phone calls a week from people wanting to see the new Subaru that they saw on YouTube. The employee has to tell them it’s a fake preview.
And so it goes. The real cars–actual representations of new cars–get lost in this sea of fakes. And the sad part of it is viewers respond to fake AI stories–wasting their time on a car that is not coming out.
I think this shows how, in a couple of years, fake AI-generated news is drowning out real news. What YouTube needs to do is have a warning label in a box that says “The following is AI generated and has no basis in reality”.
I have been a journalist for 60 years and always assumed articles in the newspaper were following basic rules of journalism–that you could check with the sources they mention and the facts are facts. But with YouTube there is no requirement that a fake new car report be real in any way. The automakers themselves should be suing them for mis-use of their name, logo and images.
They are doing the same thing with movie previews, saying this is the new James Bond move, for example, and you watch it for a minute and realize this is not from the moviemakers but some AI generation machine having a laugh at you–them stupid human who do not know real news from fake news.
Why do the fakers do it? To show off their chops, have a good laugh and maybe to make money by advertising. I don’t know what the threshold is–the point where they start paying the YouTuber but I met a college Junior who makes $11,000 a year just from the views accumulated on YouTube from people watching his hot rod reports.
So, enuff already. I’ve been fooled too many times. I know some are hailing AI as a wonderful new thing but it’s also a new way to lie, convincingly…
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss writes, photographs and paints oil portraits of his favorite cars. He can be reached regarding commissions at mendoart7@gmail.com
Wallace,
AI makes a tremendous number of mistakes not only in the car realm, but also in the fields of entertainment and just general information. I find errors every single day. It is horrendous, and nobody is going to do anything about it. It’s like the Wild, Wild West – let the reader beware.
Glenn in Brooklyn, NY
I have come across some of these videos on YouTube that Wallace is describing and they are very deceptive. If the viewer does not pay attention they could trick most people.