I read articles online all the time, watch videos on YouTube. I consume a lot of content like everyone else. These days I’m trying to consume less. That said, the content I am consuming I’m seeing more and more AI generated content.
Most of the time especially on YouTube it’s pretty dang easy to tell. YouTube shorts are just filled with this content. I usually immediately swipe and keep on moving. I’m not sure if I’m weird in this regard but it just makes me mad to watch an AI generated video. These platforms are so large now that this type of content will find an audience.
That said, it really feels like cheating and subverting the entire point of these types of platforms. The point is to connect, at least that’s what the folks who run these places always say.
With this in mind, it got me to thinking…will there be a new home for purely human made content? Is there an opportunity down the road to build a platform that is only featuring human made content. Will HumanTube become a new platform rivaling YouTube and TikTok?
It’s a fun thought experiment to think through a future like that. If that becomes the reality which its looking more and more like it everyday then I for one would love a platform that is focused on just that. But is it possible to know what’s human and what’s AI?
AI is only getting better
Deepfakes, AI generated video, and audio is only going to get better. In fact, it’s already pretty damn good. They can even do podcasts now!
I asked NotebookLM to give me a brief history of baseball and it went away and generated a 5m podcast giving all the high level bits of history for baseball.
I don’t know about you but this sounds like real people to me!
A future
It seems pretty dang likely that all of this AI generated content will improve to a point where we can’t distinguish between what’s real and what’s not. It seems like we might already be there in some respects.
I love podcasts and the personalities behind them. I think a large part of that is because they are real people tied to them. But who knows?! Maybe that’s not an important part.
If we do have the technology to differentiate between what’s human and what’s AI created content then I think there will be a community of people who would want human content over AI.
So will human made content be a niche in the not so distant future?
I also immediately skip content completely generated by AI, not because I'm averse to AI, but because it tends to be the lowest quality content. It also lacks the personal aspect which I find appealing on a platform like YouTube. I don't mind that some creators use AI as a tool to make the content, but it's so discernable when it's low-effort, generated content.
Let's hope that if this does happen, we have a spot at the front of the line for standing out! Who knew being human could be a feature? :)