pan069 wrote on 2026-10-11, 06:20:

The way I interpret it is that he's just dicking around with this AI thing. The trailer he showed is SHIT. I can tell because my wife actually watches a lot of this AI generated video gunk, which is actually quite good, and when I say "good" I mean it's actually very well done and doesn't look and feel anything as lame, awkward and cheap as what David churned out. It's still clearly AI generated though, it has its own look and feel which doesn't appeal to me, but to each their own I guess. BUT, you can create something that is actually much much better with AI than David demonstrates in his video. However, I did enjoy the section in his video where he goes through some of the challenges

His AI video is similar to most AI videos in quality, they just resemble a series of glued together events and sentences.

The number of AI videos that are of acceptable+ quality is only around the 1% mark,
So videos most people say are good, may have a well researched topic but the ai voice and mannerisms makes it more of a chore.

The only good ai programming I’ve seen is actually the Doctor Who relaunch but even with custom tools and a decent script
you can still pick out a bunch of nonsense

I’m not saying real tv and movies don’t sometimes have similar issues but those were considered continuity errors or bad set and acting decisions. (Or poorly executed, underfunded b movie slop)

In David’s case he should have leaned hard into turning his video Into the most campy , AI meme style possible randomly peppered through
while having a good plot but attempt to replicate the historical bad movie tropes and style.

Leaning hard into brief moments of content of similar quality to Will Smith eating spaghetti for background moments and making it to neg AI video could be fun.
Ai shouldn’t be meant to be high art, might as well work hard so it’s as far away as possible on purpose.

eM-!3 wrote on 2026-10-11, 13:55:

Some of the comments below the video and here on vogons make me think that few people around here on this forums are really... well to put it mildly I wouldn't want to hang around with you.

Fine by me. You willingly entered a thread with the title "8-Bit Guy Goes AI - I dislike it. Anyone else?" .

eM-!3 wrote on 2026-10-11, 13:55:

You are looking for every reason to cancel him.

I don't think that's the case. Maybe I missed the posts that were moderated, but so far the conversation seems to be quite tame.

eM-!3 wrote on 2026-10-11, 13:55:

It was a gun,

No, it was a grown-ass man openly carrying an assault rifle in a store and proclaiming he was doing it to own the libs/troll the snowflakes or w/e. Had it been because of personal beliefs or moral/ethical/political compasses it would have been maybe understandable, although I'm sure that's not the case for a lot of us folk not living in the US. But to be a 40+ year old person with a wife, kid/s and a platform of people that subscribe to you for your jovial attitude, knowledge and all round fun times discussing computer stuff, let's just call it what it is, man-baby behavior at best. [/quote]

eM-!3 wrote on 2026-10-11, 13:55:

some kind of repair mistake

Come on now, you can't just throw this as a little extra in there. I mean despite the gun video, 8-Bit guy was mostly in perfectly good standing with most people, either because they missed that prior video or they didn't care, they were there for the knowledge and script + presentation. The guy picked up a prototype computer and just borked it? I don't even recall the details anymore but it was embarrassing stuff. He has a platform, he can ask people, he can do a collab with someone else more knowledgeable on this particular issue/hardware or whatever, he can donate it to a museum of his liking and approval. But instead he does this?
Or maybe it was one of his elaborate l33t pranks to make fun of overly serious people on the webz again? Perhaps, not sure it went over well for him.

eM-!3 wrote on 2026-10-11, 13:55:

8-bit PC that he made, boring series about Texas IT corporations, few games that he developed

I'm sure I've heard something on the first two but I'm just not really keeping up with him these past few years, but I thought his games were fairly well received for being okay to good but mostly for the technical merit and interesting aspect of scaling up 8bit games all the way to 256 VGA on PC?

As for the rest of your post I don't really know what to make of it. Have you not heard any of the anti-AI/LLM statements? Even if you don't agree with any of them, which I take it is the case here, is it really that much of a stretch to understand why people see him pursuing this avenue and simply not agreeing with it? And also making fun of him, because you know he seems like a guy that can take a joke, remember the gun business? That was funny!

But really, did you not see what he produced? He doesn't need to prompt anything, he and you and anyone else can just open up a TikTok account and like a couple of similar videos and eventually you'll get exactly the same brain-dead and lifeless looking "content" to your heart's content. It's shit. A mishmash of plagiarized shit that takes up a lot (understatement of the year) of power to produce, has the entire market on a frenzy, is costing jobs left and right everyday, has caused hardware prices on even the most simple electronic devices to skyrocket and further accelerates our happy march towards doomsday scenarios.

If you want to shoot a film, shoot a film. Short or longer. We live in an era where what constitutes a film or a series is constantly in debate. Try your best and be yourself, it can be quite endearing.
This is once again, embarrassing stuff.

From some of the posts I just get "AI sucks."
When I was in school everyone thought that using a calculator in math class was cheating. How about now? Things change.
To be fair, his videos suck.
I could not watch even one.
But having said that, he has the right to post them.
People bitching here does nothing.
Get a life!

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-10-11, 22:36:

aVd wrote on 2026-10-11, 20:39:

Now seriously. This thread derailed with the first comment about "the gun problem" (form one of "the usual suspects") and I think, it should be closed for good, just like the rest provocative and politically biased useless threads here, which create only tensions between the forum members.

And I'm not telling you what to do, but just look what your Canadian colleague-moderator is doing again. Honestly, I miss @DosFreak as a mod and he with his double standards wasn't cut out for that job at all, but at least he was politically neutral.

To be clear, my reasons for not watching his channel anymore have nothing to do with his politics. It has everything to do with his behaviors that, in my view, were insensitive at best and cruel at worst.

That it happens to be in relation to a political issue is incidental. At least in my view.

the "Gun problem"is an issue
leave it out.
e

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-10-11, 05:14:

YouTube and chasing the Algorithm is a disease many YouTube creators get infected with, its an insidious disease that creeps in slowly till its too late to stop it. Its like boiling a frog in a pot very slowly so the frog doesn't realise its boiling till its too late.

A sponsor here and another there, perhaps a huge paid collab or two and before they know it they are only making Videos to get that fat cash.

Watched it happen with LTT and a few other creators I liked, once you notice the pattern its impossible to ignore it and honestly it destroyed YouTube for me.

I think this speaks to people going from Youtube as a hobby to Youtube as a job. Especially channels like LTT that grew an entire business out of Youtube.

For people looking to make a living at this, it's typically going to come in the form of sponsorships or merchandising (or both). Just random advertising doesn't pay what it used to.

LGR seems an exception to this, though I imagine he probably made most of his money from his channel when advertising paid more.

Garrett W wrote on 2026-10-11, 21:57:

I decline your invitation to discuss more about this subject. It's a waste of time for all people involved here as nobody will change what they think no matter what sort of arguments will be used. My participation in this topic is over.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-10-11, 22:42:

I think this speaks to people going from Youtube as a hobby to Youtube as a job. Especially channels like LTT that grew an entir […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-10-11, 05:14:

YouTube and chasing the Algorithm is a disease many YouTube creators get infected with, its an insidious disease that creeps in slowly till its too late to stop it. Its like boiling a frog in a pot very slowly so the frog doesn't realise its boiling till its too late.

A sponsor here and another there, perhaps a huge paid collab or two and before they know it they are only making Videos to get that fat cash.

Watched it happen with LTT and a few other creators I liked, once you notice the pattern its impossible to ignore it and honestly it destroyed YouTube for me.

I think this speaks to people going from Youtube as a hobby to Youtube as a job. Especially channels like LTT that grew an entire business out of Youtube.

For people looking to make a living at this, it's typically going to come in the form of sponsorships or merchandising (or both). Just random advertising doesn't pay what it used to.

LGR seems an exception to this, though I imagine he probably made most of his money from his channel when advertising paid more.

Oh I understand that, people who decide to use YT as a job need to make money, I just think that switch to chase the cash and views has in its own way destroyed many a Tech and Retro Tech channel. LGR never struck me as a guy who ever wanted to make YT his job, but rather used the sponsors and ads as a means to support the channel to produce further content, LTT went the other way where the entire channel/s became the adds and the content was there as a vehicle for the adds/sponsors. To each their own I guess, I still watch LGR and have not watched LTT in a very long time, I don't watch 8bit guy, not because of anything he has done but rather I don't like the content and don't find the presentation style to be entertaining.

In my own defense I do treat YT like TV, if I don't like the program on I switch the channel, I dont go complaining about it or making wild accusations about the content creator.

What are we doing here?

I liked a few of this things but unsubscribed from his channel when he destroyed that old IBM.

I can understand he must have been excited he was able to bring to life his fan fiction with the AI tools, but as many other have said it doesn't look good at all. Having a premiere in person feels like a bad idea to me.

I really hope this isn't an indication that we will see further "AI slop" style videos from him and other creators in the future.

Many YouTube channels that start off as someone in their back room, you see the passion. Trying to make it a full time gig is just the wrong move, statistically it's a hard ask and comes with a decline in quality content due to lost passion, burn out and obvious advertisements. There are few exceptions to this IMO, it's all a matter of time.

Also I don't want to go on about the whole gun thing, but just so I am clear being able to "open carry" is being able to carry a weapon in public? Any weapon? I read previous posts so I have the context on why people see this as controversial.

Dan9550 wrote on Yesterday, 03:10:

Also I don't want to go on about the whole gun thing, but just so I am clear being able to "open carry" is being able to carry a weapon in public? Any weapon? I read previous posts so I have the context on why people see this as controversial.

This is very common in America outside of the cities, and is entrenched in our culture in many places. It can be a culture shock to realize this, but you have to understand that there is a vast difference between the gun culture of the "good ol' boys" who open carry and the urban culture that is responsible for the "American gun violence problem" that you often hear about - the perps of that violence always conceal their weapons, until they're ready to kill (unless they're waving them around on social media, that is). They don't really think about gun laws because they don't follow them, until they get arrested and act like they're being persecuted.

The vast majority of the gun violence you hear about America having happens in the cities, where guns are the most restricted - European levels of restriction. It still happens. Most of the guns being used in that violence were obtained illegally because the owners are felons who are not legally permitted to own firearms. We have a problem here with leniency towards criminals that results in such things. They get released from prison and immediately kill someone again.

Anyway, the issue people have with what 8 Bit Guy did is that it was an "own the libs with epic memesauce" stunt that fell flat for reasons already discussed.

Hello, interloper here, responding to some reports of ongoing misbehaviour in this topic. (If you want to discuss this message with me, please send a PM or use the contact form instead of derailing this topic with a meta-discussion.)

No matter how wrong someone else is here or how wrong you feel they are, it is always possible to register disagreement—even strong disagreement—without resorting to insults or personal attacks. Everyone here, including me, agrees to try to do this. Our mutual benefit in following these rules is having the ability to discuss things which may be difficult, share ideas and opinions that not everyone will agree with without being threatened, and hopefully learn from—and teach others—new and interesting things.

When these rules are broken, it ruins the conversation for everybody, including you. Eventually, it makes it impossible for this place to continue to exist at all. So if you see other people misbehaving, please remind them that we all agreed to the same set of rules and redirect the conversation back to the topic at hand. If you can’t do that, flag the offending posts instead of dragging things further into flame war territory.

Do you have more to add about 8-bit Guy and their YouTube channel, or have a reply to someone else’s thoughts, and can follow the rules? If so, great, please continue. Otherwise, please don’t ruin things for everyone else.

Thanks,

Hi all,

TS here - maybe this is my fault. Newbie here, so I don’t have any understanding of past discussions. For me, the point worth discussing is that I’ve long been a fan of the 8-Bit Guy’s content, but the AI video made me worry that he’s moving away from the content that I love (in-depth retro technical content) and experimenting more and more with different subjects. For me, it’s been a trend: Commander X16, Game development, Solar, TimeRift Arcade and now AI movie production. I don’t hold a grudge - he’s free to do whatever he wants on YouTube - but I’m wondering if I’m the only one who thinks so? I’ve seen many comments here where people argue, it is inevitable if you make YT your work, you have to diversify and market otherwise your income stream will dry up. I also saw people discussing that this has happened to other channels as well.

That’s all I was interested in. All other aspects are off-topic as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps I should have written my opening better. I apologize if this thread has caused any inconvenience to people - certainly not my intent.

daanmsvl wrote on Yesterday, 07:57:

Hi all,

TS here - maybe this is my fault. Newbie here, so I don’t have any understanding of past discussions. For me, the point worth discussing is that I’ve long been a fan of the 8-Bit Guy’s content, but the AI video made me worry that he’s moving away from the content that I love (in-depth retro technical content) and experimenting more and more with different subjects. For me, it’s been a trend: Commander X16, Game development, Solar, TimeRift Arcade and now AI movie production. I don’t hold a grudge - he’s free to do whatever he wants on YouTube - but I’m wondering if I’m the only one who thinks so? I’ve seen many comments here where people argue, it is inevitable if you make YT your work, you have to diversify and market otherwise your income stream will dry up. I also saw people discussing that this has happened to other channels as well.

That’s all I was interested in. All other aspects are off-topic as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps I should have written my opening better. I apologize if this thread has caused any inconvenience to people - certainly not my intent.

Its all good mate, there are a few people here with some rather strict views on the world and how things should be done and others who are far more relaxed about it all, none of that is your fault so don't be afraid to present talking topics.

The mods do a good job of keeping the off topic behaviour under control and if anything does cross the line they will simply hide the post/s, some people forget the world is a big place and what works in one place may not in another and that customs and local laws vary widely. This is something none of us should forget when discussing sensitive topics here and to take into account the person you are replying to will likely be from a country different to your own and have different customs and laws.

Be respectful to each other is my motto and if you cant be respectful then perhaps simply choose to not step into a discussion you know will get you firedup. (The AI topic is a warzone which is why I never discuss it)

Yes its sad he has strayed from what most of us call GOOD..

Most people have been conditoned to think rubbish is good now and its sad...

...as we expected, Disney and Epic quickly followed the 8-Bit Guys bold and innovative move...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report … -collaboration/

I've watched a bunch of 8-bit Guy clips and usually thought he did a decent job with whatever topic he was covering but I find it amusing that somehow I missed most of these controversial ones. I don't recall him being overtly political, and have no recollection of guns or murder by paperclip. I'll have to search these out. When I think about 8-bit guy the first things that come to mind are Planet X3 or Commander x16.

I got a kick out of his "Does AI already exist" video from a couple years back. His argument went something like this:

(1) He, himself, could create "sentient AI" if he devoted all of his time toward it for 5-10 years (though he's far too busy with YouTube to do this)
(2) There are some people in the world that are smarter than him
(3) The U.S. government has access to "unlimited" funds and can hire the smartest people in the world
(3) Therefore, "sentient AI" must already exist

It was very poorly received and he took it down, sadly (it was entertaining).

I do like his coverage of old computers, and I was glad to see him pivot back to that after a somewhat long period of solar panel installations, promoting his own games, and stuff like that.

The trailer is total bs imo. But it doesn't cancel out all the valuable things he did in the past. I personally respect 8 bit guy for his videos on hardware history and in-depth reviews. I still go back to many of his old videos to this day. Goes without saying that making games is another thing that makes him stand out.
Yeah, the paper clip video was awful. Yet we all have the right to make mistakes. Overall all he did is of much more value for me than many other unboxing and review or gameplay videos, that youtube is full of.

newtmonkey wrote on Today, 04:56:

I got a kick out of his "Does AI already exist" video from a couple years back. His argument went something like this: […]
Show full quote

I got a kick out of his "Does AI already exist" video from a couple years back. His argument went something like this:

(1) He, himself, could create "sentient AI" if he devoted all of his time toward it for 5-10 years (though he's far too busy with YouTube to do this)
(2) There are some people in the world that are smarter than him
(3) The U.S. government has access to "unlimited" funds and can hire the smartest people in the world
(3) Therefore, "sentient AI" must already exist

It was very poorly received and he took it down, sadly (it was entertaining).

He's an old geek and like most of the geeks he has some unusual sense of humor. I really stopped watching his videos, when he started his "nano solar park" series, when literally every second video was about his new solar panels, his home AC installation connected to his new solar panels, his battery driven cart, his wife's battery driven cart, his even newer solar panels... etc. "green energy" bulls**ts. So, I don't remember a video like the one you described, but it might have been made as a joke with the USA's government.

newtmonkey wrote on Today, 04:56:

I do like his coverage of old computers, and I was glad to see him pivot back to that after a somewhat long period of solar panel installations, promoting his own games, and stuff like that.

Did you know his abandoned pre-8-bit days YT channels? His content back then was ridiculous. It's not even funny.