Post "A Note on Not Being Shocking, and Making Connections" by "AIExplained" from patreon

Nikolai NM

Iam here because Iam sick and tired of unqualified opinions. I agree that the coverage of ai news especially on YouTube has become hysterical to a point where you easily loose you colleagues respect if you mention the word AI. You are on the right track; trust your intuition. Nothing worse then houligans in what ever field :)

Ulrik Street-Poulsen

Your take on this is exactly why you are the one content creator I would never skip a post from. I why I am increasingly skipping other creator's posts. Keep doing what you're doing. 🙌

Philip

Thanks Kalyan!

Kalyan Uppalapati

I am deeply appreciative of your presence as a beacon of rationality amidst the overwhelming tumult. Your dedication to meticulously examining the primary research and distilling its essence for our edification is profoundly commendable. Your efforts illuminate the complex landscape, providing clarity and insight. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to intellectual rigor and for sharing the fruits of your labor with us.

Jumpstar

Okay Gotcha, thanks Philip!

Philip

Hey Christian, so great to have you, and thanks again for the kind words. Should be in settings: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266-Getting-Discord-access

Christian Beaumont

Hey Philip. Christian/Jumpstar here.. Indeed, I have been getting increasingly tired of it all. I was trying to look past it, but there is only so much fluff you can digest. I'm honestly surprised I made it this long knowing the quality you put out. Well I am here now. Thanks a lot for doing all this stuff. Where is the link to the Discord btw?

YuriMassiveCat

"I believe I have so far resisted this pretty unambiguously but if you ever see me prioritising the maintenance of such connections over impartial coverage" Thank you for your self-awareness. I think we'll take this stance over high-profile interviews if there's a choice

Felipe Galvão

If the content is actually good, I'm willing to look past the "SHOCKING" titles, but at this point it's mostly just the course/newsletter/channel self-promotion.

GGuy

Just watched Jack Conte's latest talk on the topic ❤️. https://youtu.be/5zUndMfMInc?si=WZQFtdWDiSHTbnLv

Philip

Thank you Paulo, well put.

Philip

Not in full. One day perhaps.

Mark Levine

To have your clear, non-sensationalist analysis, which is not too influenced by the thinking of the herd—it’s absolutely invaluable. Maybe if the topic were sports or show biz that wouldn’t be true. But you are helping us understand what may be the most complicated and consequential topic of our time and the value of that can’t be overstated. Thank you!

Niklas Jobb

I wonder, have you ever told us your name? You might not want be public with your name, and have valid reason for that decision, still I wanted to ask.

Patrick & Sylvia Trentelman

Humbled to be part of this.

r

Please go back to that. That uniform looks unironically snappy AF on you

r

Dave you're the man too I fucking love your content dude you and AI Explained are the only AI related YouTube channels I'll listen to. There's a sea of shit out there, thank you for captaining these murky waters dutifully, and for the benefit of your audience.

r

I fucking love you dude. A million thank yous for remaining the only channel with integrity and pride in their work that I even bother to watch. Literally every other AI related news channel goes into the trash for me for the sole exception of this one, AI Explained. You are a light shining bright against the dark and I cannot thank you enough for it.

Alexis Brooker

"I got to 100k subs by dressing like Jean-Luc Picard" - I would click on this title

Mark White

Your integrity will pay dividends in the medium to long run. Ultimately as content creator you need to build trust and that requires honesty, integrity and hard work together with an appreciation that these things take time. I find your channel excellent and authoritative. What gives your channel additional credibility is that you provide link to all the papers your citing. I have literatlly used your videos to find relevant AI articles and read them myself. Really appreciate the work you're doing. You will continue to build your channel while others who have given into the temptation of sensationalism will fall away.

Andronikos Koutroumpelis

Congrats on your integrity Philip, rare thing with AI media creators. We'll be there for the little slap if needed but seems unwarranted :)

Carlos Baraza

Today, LLMs are spitting low quality articles and content at sound speed. In no time, Google and recommendation algorithms would be completely useless, and only another AI would be able to filter all the noise with your interest at hand if you pay for it. The only alternative would be small communities and influencers that kept the signal to noise ratio high.

Erik

Lol, that could be the title of your next book. Fwiw, I considered you more of a Q than a Picard in that uniform.

GGuy

For me the issue isn't even the clickbait but it is the lack of value provided by the videos. There was a high quality long term creator that would cover research in AI space from time to time and I had to stop watching that channel a couple of years ago. Same has happened with 2 newer channels I've had to stop watching as much in the last 3-6months. 😞

Matt Grosse

I agree. I click every AI Explained video as the quality is consistently high. I also watch David Shapiro videos as they are interesting discussions and different to the rest of the YouTube AI hype space. I still watch Wes Roth videos as I know his shocking titles are joking, however I'm pretty close to unsubscribing as he is pumping out quantity over quality. I watch some Matt Wolfe videos if I want an update on some consumer facing AI apps, however the titles are so click baity I never know if it will be worth the effort anymore. The emphasis on quality over quality, and fact over hype is a competitive advantage for AI Explained.

Håvard Rekdal

I commented a shorter version of this exact point recently on your video. Thank you so much for sticking to your principles and continously providing top tier content without resorting to clickbaiting, sensationalism and engagement-baiting. I follow a lot of AI channels out of necesity but at this point yours is honestly the only one that I get genuinely excited by every time I see a new upload!

David Shapiro

It was fun but I do feel like it's time to be taken more seriously lol. but seriously, now I can say "I got to 100k subs by dressing like Jean-Luc Picard" and that very well may be the greatest achievement of my life.

Erik

I wasn’t so sure it was a joke David:for a while I thought you had taken the Steve Jobs “uniform” idea a bit too literally :-). And then you had to keep doing it because your viewers expected it from you lol

Erik

While I agree with you in principle, Wes Roth is clearly doing it tongue in cheek. Still, even with his sense of humour the joke gets old.

solarapparition

Yeah. The quality of coverage has certainly deteriorated over the last 4-6 months. I’ve unfortunately had to unfollow some creators in this space I used to respect. I get the incentives—that is the siren call that one hears when the primary input to one’s income is attention. Stay strong, Philip. We are here as your backstop.

Tasty3141

I've noticed that the people who run their channels with high quality and ethics may not always get the highest view counts but seems to do WAY better on Patreon. Suggests to me that the quality of these extra views you get with clickbait aren't actually worth all that much and don't convert into real fans.

Sean Betts

Can’t stand click bait headlines. I know they work short term, but undermine credibility long term. Keep up the good fight!

Shane Mitchell

Your clear-headedness and ability to convey excitement about the development of this technology without devolving into sensationalist rhetoric is why you are the first YouTube creator I've chosen to directly financially contribute to. I equally appreciate the time you take to reference your sources and provide links to repos, other media, and published papers in the description for each video. My sincere thanks and appreciation for what you do!

George roukas

I depend on the clickbait titles to know what to avoid. I can't remember the last time I read or played a video that includes something like "THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!! or "YOU WON'T BELIEVE..." To me, this just means the author has nothing material to say, so they've wrapped the 'nothing' in sensationalism. I support your channel on YouTube and Patreon because you just give the straight scoop on things I consider to be important. You have integrity and present your material in a very clear style. Please keep up the good work and don't worry about that other junk. I don't believe your audience falls for it, and it draws an even clearer distinction in your value proposition.

Egbert Oostburg

Concur 👍🏽

Mike Pemberton

Like many others on here, I'm sure, I find the YouTube headline of "New AI model about to [take jobs / solve fusion / control nukes...]!!" a great way to filter out the sort of videos with no useful information content. So kinda useful, for the discerning AI Explained viewer :-)

David Shapiro

I mean, used to wear a Star Trek uniform as a gag.

Carlos Andrés Campo González

Things are heating up and your information is very valuable. You have done pretty good by mentioning what the large companies are doing without becoming their marketing team, hopefully this continues. This is far too important.

Paul Ryan

I don't think he condoned it, he just said he understood why Wes does it, to rank high in the YouTube algorithm. You can enjoy content without condoning video titles

Simon Booth

Thank you for saying this... I know exactly what you mean, and I have been consciously avoiding content advertising itself as SHOCKING even though I know the actual content will probably be quite fair (and not shocking) because I don't want to incentivise it. FWIW, I have never had to ask myself whether I want to click on one of your videos when it appears.

Steve DeMoss

I listen to a few different YouTube AI creators. In some cases, the titles are way over the top and aren't indicative of the content, which is usually pretty good. But, AI Explained is considerably better in quality and, importantly, is the only channel through which I am also a member of Patreon and involved on Discord. And it's money very well spent. I suspect your approach makes you very credible with those who work at the AI labs and in the industry (Jeff Clune from last night's video is a great example) and that should lead to even better content. Thanks for all you do and keep playing the long game!

Shawn Fumo

Hah, and it would probably get a lot of views. But IMO better to let it go and not add to negativity online.

Clay Farris Naff

As a former full-time professional journalist and a continuing student of human nature, I sympathize with your dilemmas. The algorithms, despicable though they may be, reflect human nature. Our ancestors had to pay attention to alarming (“shocking”) news, because their lives might have depended on it. Some of our ancestors learned how to exploit that. (Other animals have been observed giving false alarms about predators to clear away competitors for food.)1 Gossip is a human universal, presumably because upping our social status while taking others down a peg or two is so rewarding.2 But we’ve clawed our way to civilization by establishing higher standards and building institutions to encourage and sometimes enforce them. You clearly aspire to such standards, and you’ve admirably achieved a fine record in this space. I encourage you to continue to do so, though I for one would readily forgive *mock* sensationalism in your headlines, provided you explain and undercut it in your discourse. As for not getting too close to your sources, that is an eternal dilemma for journalists. I can only refer you to the Bard (the original Bard): To thine own self be true. Cheers, Clay 1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258900422300175X#:~:text=Fork%2Dtailed%20drongos%20(Dicrurus%20adsimilis,cubs%20to%20regain%20food%20items. 2) https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/gossip-a-thing-humans-do/#:~:text=Gossip%20is%20a%20human%20universal,(Stewart%20and%20Strathern%202004).

Simon Pilkington

Please keep your content clear and clean. Hopefully in the near future there will be an AI that can filter youtube and other social media for only content with high integrity, until then we'll have to keep filtering for ourselves.

Mark D. Rasmussen MD

Your integrity is appreciated. That’s why I support your work.

Jan Matusiewicz

Please continue your approach. What makes your channel so valuable is the balanced view, showing both the strengths and weaknesses of all these new products and functionalities. It saves me a lot of time comparing to delving into each topic myself.

Anouar Mansour

I think we will need an educated public to better transition into whatever AI world we are going into, and these click baits do more harm than good. Your average person sees these crazy headlines/tweets which don't match with reality, so their best assessment of the current AI progress is that it's all fluff and no substance.

Jean-Emmanuel COMBE

I hate all the shocking industry youtubers. Thank you for not being one of them. You deserve every cent just because of that. Integrity will win eventually, hopefully.

Maverick

This is what the clickbaiters don't get. They may get new viewers but they are killing their own subscriber retention.

Maverick

Totally agree.

Maverick

Yup. Same. Unfortunately though they can't see past the "it gets me new viewers" trope.

Maverick

I wish all AI YouTubers could read this post. You've hit all the points that are important to viewers, and it's sad to see that to clickbaiters the bottom line is more important than the viewer. You're proof that it can be done without the noise of clickbait. That's why you're at the top - as QUALITY CONTENT.

Maverick

It's weird to see you support this post that denounces the practice of clickbait, but then to also condone the use of clickbait (by other youtubers) in your own video yesterday? https://youtu.be/GoUU2Qo0A8U?si=9Boi9v5Qkwp7_ZgM&t=309

Oldsnakenewtrix

Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point - Eliezer Yudkowsky Every eighteen hours, the minimum effort needed to create a clickbait title that will destroy discourse drops by one point - AI Explained

Paulo

Journalism isn't easy work, and it can be difficult to walk that line between cultivating industry connections, growing your audience (and business), and creating honest content. It's not realistic to expect perfect balance in this regard every time. Journalists, as anyone else, make mistakes. Though I have deep respect for your work, I do expect you will miss or get something wrong eventually. That's ok. It's part of the job. The simple fact that you are aware of this 'tug of war', and make conscious effort to guard against these influences is more than enough to reassure myself (and hopefully the wider community) that you genuinely work to put out good content. Because of that, myself, and again, I think your wider audience as well, is ready to forgive any honest mistake. Anyway, you're doing great so far, and continue to be the best AI coverage channel online (with a widening gap!). Thank you for your effort!

Imad Khwaja

We all appreciate the work you put in and how you present your findings so keep doing what and how you're doing it.

Tony Coffman

Everything you said up there ^^^ is why I'm here. I prefer to pay a monthly subscription for quality, actionable content rather than sift through the overhyped garbage saturating the web currently. Waaaay back in 2020, when GPT-3 was released, there were few discussing it, yet those individuals genuinely understood the subject. Now, it seems everyone claims to be an AI "expert" or "developer," each with a story of the "groundbreaking" innovations they've "created" (e.g., integrating the GPT-4 API into a subpar open-source repository that appears to have been coded by a toddler). Please continue with your current approach, and I'll continue supporting your work financially.

Stan

Same comment as Ahmed: I recently unsubscribed from all channels that use shocking titles.

Nathaniel DiMemmo

The core reason I’m willing to pay is because you provide the facts with a little bit of opinion, I think that’s important. Provide the facts but i also want an opinion. Different opinions are core to learning and thinking differently. I haven’t been in your place as someone who has insider access but also feels a responsibility to the public. But there are plenty of journalist that do it well. Being honest and not over the top with sensational headlines is a good place to start. If you do become an insufferable ass hat I’ll let you know.

Ross Cadogan

I greatly appreciate your integrity and straightforward reporting of AI developments, and have stopped watching certain sensationalist channels.

Phillip Yao-Lakaschus

thanks for not choosing clickbait titles. I hope you will continue to resist the temptation in the future :) btw. have you seen this recent breakthrough? You won't believe which benchmarks were surpassed this time: www.... just kidding :)

Alan Rozenshtein

You should totally do a video taking the clickbaiters to task

Dieseljo

In today's world a lot of things are implied. It is with the deepest respect that I say thank you for sharing your thoughts, and for giving me a community where I can feel grounded.

Felix M

Stick to your guns on those clear titles, its much appreciated and the reason I've been subscribed for the last year and a supporter. But agreed, haven't jumped to the the £25 per month, seems steep

Cyril Sadovsky

Exactly. Only AI Explained and David Shapiro. I even blocked Wes Roth's channel. As I originally liked his content, I clicked several times on his new "SHOCKING" videos out of deep curiosity. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

Ahmed Anis

Last week I unsubscribed from some AI channels (will not name them) that I had been following for months just because of the use of *shocking*. It’s becoming really frustrating, and I decided it’s not worth my time anymore. Now to the contrary, I also discovered a very nice AI channel that only releases once a week, and I subscribed to it just from listening to one podcast. It’s about the quality, not quantity and ridiculous titles.

Gurber Flipper

Your personal integrity seen indirectly in your videos is what pulled me in to your channel so seeing it directly here makes me promote you to everyone in my personal life.

Markus Heinsohn

I have stopped watching AI news channels on YouTube except for yours and Dave Shapiro. The other creators just don't offer any value for me anymore, and if I have to see just one additional "SHOCKING", I'll go ballistic. Please keep up the great work!

SJ

i think it makes sense to either fully avoid sensational headlines or use them to make fun of them really appreciate your approach, keep on being you

David Shapiro

Yeah, I decided a while ago to be a bit more of a critical outsider, and I know that it cost me connections. Definitely stick to your guns and maintain the "insiders" ethos, it serves you well. I will continue to throw stones from the outside ;)