Intrusive Thought of the Day: Is That YouTube Video Enhanced With AI?

Have you noticed YouTube videos have started to have a little hint of the Uncanny Valley in recent months? You are far from alone, as a growing chorus of folks stuck in YouTube’s endless scroll of Shorts have started piecing together similar qualities across videos that give viewers the heebie jeebies. That’s probably not the intended response that YouTube was going for, but according to a report from The Atlantic, the effects are intentional and part of an ongoing experiment by YouTube to “enhance” videos.

Here’s what to look for to spot an “enhanced” video, according to users: “punchy shadows,” “sharp edges,” and a “plastic” look. According to the BBC, YouTubers have also pointed out these strange effects, which lead to more defined wrinkles appearing in clothing, skin looking unnaturally smooth, and occasional warping around the edges of a person’s face. Some creators expressed concerns that the unnatural look could lead to viewers thinking they used AI in their video.

All of this is appearing because YouTube is tweaking people’s videos after the content is uploaded, and has been doing so seemingly without any forewarning that changes would be made and without the permission of the creator. And while YouTubers like Rhett Shull have suggested the effects are the result of AI upscaling, an attempt to “improve” video quality using AI tools, YouTube has a different explanation.

“We’re running an experiment on select YouTube Shorts that uses traditional machine learning technology to unblur, denoise and improve clarity in videos during processing (similar to what a modern smartphone does when you record a video),” Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s head of editorial and creator liaison, said in a Twitter post. “YouTube is always working on ways to provide the best video quality and experience possible, and will continue to take creator and viewer feedback into consideration as we iterate and improve on these features.”

It’s certainly an interesting decision to explicitly identify these techniques as “traditional machine learning technology” rather than AI. A spokesperson for Google made the message even clearer in a statement to The Atlantic, stating, “These enhancements are not done with generative AI.”

It’s not like YouTube has exactly been distancing itself from generative AI. The platform just launched a new suite of “generative effects” that it has encouraged creators to use. Other creators have shown that YouTube uses AI tools to generate “inspiration” and ideas for new videos for their channel. But perhaps it’s the viscerally negative response that people have had when spotting these “enhanced” videos that has YouTube backing away from the AI-centric language.

This experiment has apparently been going on for a couple months, if the eyes of viewers are to be trusted. The BBC tracked examples of complaints about the effects described by YouTube as “enhancements” dating back to June of this year. It’s also led to some users taking a conspiratorial view of the experiment, suggesting the company is trying to desensitize audiences to AI-style effects and make them more palatable. On the positive side, that at least suggests people are generally rejecting slop. Ideally, YouTube won’t keep dragging its creators down into the AI mud and will let their videos be. It’s not like the platform is exactly short on content, after all.