Gee, am I the only one who doesn't even look at video thumbnails? If the title is interesting, I watch. No need to get all wound up about a 320x180 image when the real meat & potatoes - the 15 minute video you get to watch for free (and just as easily back out of, if it's not to your liking) - is a mere click away.

To balance things out a little here: I happen to think that AI is actually quite incredible - these are pretty exciting times we're living in, yeah? This is exactly the kind of stuff that would've blown my mind when I was 10 years old, and it is here right now. I'm still alive to witness it, and not even that old to boot!

I know, we're all about wringing every last drop of performance out of our 386s here, so perhaps not the place to be expressing enthusiasm for AI. 😉

BuB's videos may lack some of the modern "production value" that youtube audiences seem to crave these days, but calling their content lazy/half-assed/whatever is simply not fair. Don't judge the video by its thumbnail! 😉 Having said that, I do share your sentiment regarding AI-generated art creeping into every area of life guys.

revolstar wrote on 2024-03-09, 08:29:

BuB's videos may lack some of the modern "production value" that youtube audiences seem to crave these days, but calling their content lazy/half-assed/whatever is simply not fair. Don't judge the video by its thumbnail! 😉

To clarify, seeing those crappy thumbnails gives that impression at first glance.

I actually find most of BuB's videos to be pretty insightful, but someone who isn't familiar with that channel might get the wrong idea when seeing a low effort thumbnail pop up on their feed for the first time.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-03-09, 08:35:

I actually find most of BuB's videos to be pretty insightful, but someone who isn't familiar with that channel might get the wrong idea when seeing a low effort thumbnail pop up on their feed for the first time.

Aye, true that! Cheers!

On a somewhat related note, a friend just told me that he stopped buying some fancy brand of coffee (dunno which though, I barely touch the stuff myself) because there was a sticker on the box that featured ai-generated art. So there's definitely an anti-ai sentiment brewing in the general populace 😉

AI generated thumbnails are well below my other YouTube pet peeves, such as being reminded to like and subscribe, and click bait titles. Guitar YouTube is especially bad for the latter. Often the title doesn't even give you an idea of what the video is about. It's usually something vague like "this one trick improved my playing so much!".

Click bite is to produce a video every freakin' week even it's just total nonsense. BuB has been doing just that lately (afterdark screensavers, dos ram-drive, 10 videos on how tomb raider can't run properly on 486 system, etc.), it's sad but not unexpected. Far more popular channels have gone down the drain because of this.

And don't get me wrong, I really like his repair videos, but this concept of him releasing a mandatory video every week, even if the video is stupid filler, I can't approve this.

A lot of what creators do on YouTube is simply to satisfy the almighty YouTube Algorithm. This is why frequent uploads, eye-catching thumbnails (including the so-called "YouTube Face"), click bait titles, etc. In part, because this stuff actually works.

If you look at BuB's most popular videos, three of the top 12 are from his most recent Tomb Raider series. Including Part 4 that is the third most viewed video on his channel.

YouTube is highly competitive. I wouldn't hate on creators for doing what they need to stand out and attract an audience.

analog_programmer wrote on 2024-03-09, 04:44:

"Generative", "non-generative" or whatever degenerative so called "ai" is all based on human work

and human work isn't?

if human artists didn't grow up being exposed to century's worth of prior artistic work, I suspect all they would be able to "generate" is the equivalent of cave paintings

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-09, 14:18:

A lot of what creators do on YouTube is simply to satisfy the almighty YouTube Algorithm. This is why frequent uploads, eye-catching thumbnails (including the so-called "YouTube Face"), click bait titles, etc. In part, because this stuff actually works.

If you look at BuB's most popular videos, three of the top 12 are from his most recent Tomb Raider series. Including Part 4 that is the third most viewed video on his channel.

YouTube is highly competitive. I wouldn't hate on creators for doing what they need to stand out and attract an audience.

I didn't know about BuB's thumbnails until I read this thread. Whatever attracting power these generated images or giant arrows or O faces have is entirely lost on me as I subscribe to the RSS feeds through Thunderbird. Just a plaintext title and URL which goes into YT-DLP. It's far more relevant to my edge case whether the video title tells me what the video is about so I know if I want to watch it. Those are subject to their own algorithm-chasing chicanery - some big channels will change the title multiple times within the first hour after upload, desperately trying to dimly discern the will of the machine god.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2024-03-09, 15:34:

and human work isn't?

Humans still can and do create new ideas and release these ideas into things. Machines (all these fake "ai" algorithms) do not.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-09, 14:18:

A lot of what creators do on YouTube is simply to satisfy the almighty YouTube Algorithm. This is why frequent uploads, eye-catching thumbnails (including the so-called "YouTube Face"), click bait titles, etc. In part, because this stuff actually works.

If you look at BuB's most popular videos, three of the top 12 are from his most recent Tomb Raider series. Including Part 4 that is the third most viewed video on his channel.

YouTube is highly competitive. I wouldn't hate on creators for doing what they need to stand out and attract an audience.

I think there is a presumption that this works, but I don't think we can say for sure. I think a big part of it is just that YouTubers see what other people are doing and don't want to get left behind. I'm admittedly a curmudgeon, but I will unsubscribe if this stuff gets too bad.

analog_programmer wrote on 2024-03-09, 16:36:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2024-03-09, 15:34:

and human work isn't?

Humans still can and do create new ideas and release these ideas into things. Machines (all these fake "ai" algorithms) do not.

I noticed this just recently.
If you search for AI generated fan art, for example, certain facial expressions get reused over and over again.

It reminds me of the "morphing" fad of the late 80s/early 90s.
When a lady's head gets transformed into a cheetah one or something.

What AI algorithms seemingly can't understand (gratefully) are emotions and facial expressions.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-03-09, 19:46:

I think there is a presumption that this works, but I don't think we can say for sure. I think a big part of it is just that YouTubers see what other people are doing and don't want to get left behind. I'm admittedly a curmudgeon, but I will unsubscribe if this stuff gets too bad.

YouTube creators have access to much more analytical data about their videos than we do. I wouldn't necessarily chalk everything they do to just following the crowd.

There are also things we can still ascertain about popularity of channels.

For example, BuB's subscriber count is ~15.6k currently. Half of their most recent 12 videos have exceeded their subscriber count. That RamDrive video they just released yesterday already has over 20k views.

That's highly unusual, especially when compared to other similar channels like RetroSpector78, Tony359, Necroware, etc.

Even compared to a channel like Phil's Computer Lab which has 140k subscribers, BuB's recent videos are getting more views. They're clearly doing something right.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-03-09, 20:00:

What AI algorithms seemingly can't understand (gratefully) are emotions and facial expressions.

Since when did algorithms in some program code start to (not) understand anything? 😆😆😆

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-09, 20:37:

YouTube creators have access to much more analytical data about their videos than we do. I wouldn't necessarily chalk everything […]
Show full quote

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-03-09, 19:46:

I think there is a presumption that this works, but I don't think we can say for sure. I think a big part of it is just that YouTubers see what other people are doing and don't want to get left behind. I'm admittedly a curmudgeon, but I will unsubscribe if this stuff gets too bad.

YouTube creators have access to much more analytical data about their videos than we do. I wouldn't necessarily chalk everything they do to just following the crowd.

There are also things we can still ascertain about popularity of channels.

For example, BuB's subscriber count is ~15.6k currently. Half of their most recent 12 videos have exceeded their subscriber count. That RamDrive video they just released yesterday already has over 20k views.

That's highly unusual, especially when compared to other similar channels like RetroSpector78, Tony359, Necroware, etc.

Even compared to a channel like Phil's Computer Lab which has 140k subscribers, BuB's recent videos are getting more views. They're clearly doing something right.

Even with analytics, how would they know the more recent success had anything to do with telling people to like and subscribe, AI art, click bait video titles, etc.? Maybe those recent topics were more interesting to the audience? Correlation does not imply causation.

The 386 Ramdrive thumbnail would work on me.
It's got the dos/ old window's logo, picture of old ram. If I was scrolling though list of videos this would catch my attention.

The Lara Croft ones not so much, but I get it. Sex sells, lets face it. the fact it had a hot chick on the box is what sold the game originally.
Ironically if it had the Laura from the original games, it would catch my attention more than the current version.

I just find the AI thumbnails boring as they blend in with the other AI thumbnails but don't have any strong opinion on them.
Clickbait titles I'll avoid just on principle.

megatog615 wrote on 2024-03-09, 02:15:

Man, what is this trash? Why can't they just use screenshots or photos from the things they're talking about instead of creating this garbage? Most egregious in my opinion is the 386 Ram Drive one where it could have just been a photo of a 386 board's RAM section. Or the Amiga video about CGI... could have just been a screenshot of the software in question.

Get with the times.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-03-11, 05:05:

megatog615 wrote on 2024-03-09, 02:15:

Man, what is this trash? Why can't they just use screenshots or photos from the things they're talking about instead of creating this garbage? Most egregious in my opinion is the 386 Ram Drive one where it could have just been a photo of a 386 board's RAM section. Or the Amiga video about CGI... could have just been a screenshot of the software in question.

Get with the times.

A stunningly-ironic thing to say on this website.

megatog615 wrote on 2024-03-11, 14:34:

appiah4 wrote on 2024-03-11, 05:05:

Get with the times.

A stunningly-ironic thing to say on this website.

i suspect a minor joke on repeat 😀

in any case, i don't mind the AI thumbnails but would prefer photo + relevant text, otherwise there is a generic almost corporate look to it

it's the least of concerns though, content matters above all else - thankfully as it is presently we have the complete archive of youtube vids (other than those taken down by users or copyright)

gerry wrote on 2024-03-12, 14:41:

i suspect a minor joke on repeat 😀

I gotta say it is tiring to have to keep re-treading the same arguments over and over again.