Katarzyna Petru
YouTube has made subtle changes to some videos published on the platform without asking for creators' consent. This does not refer to filters or intentional effects, but to adjustments imposed from above by the platform. Creators have noticed that their content has started to look "strangely artificial," which raises serious questions about trust in the authenticity of videos on the internet.
Rick Beato and the First Suspicions
Rick Beato, one of the most popular music YouTubers with over five million subscribers, was the first to notice that something was wrong. – "I thought my hair looked strange, like I had makeup on," he recalls. Upon closer inspection, he noticed unnaturally smooth skin, sharper clothes, and distorted ears. The changes were subtle but clearly present.
Rhett Shull: “It looks like AI”
Rhett Shull, another music creator, had similar experiences. His videos featured the same artefacts, which he described as an effect of AI. – “If I wanted to overdo the sharpness, I would have done it myself. In this case, it looks like content generated by artificial intelligence. It undermines the authenticity of my work” – he emphasises. His recording about the issue has already been viewed by over half a million people.
YouTube confirms experiment
The first user comments on this topic appeared online as early as June. After months of speculation, YouTube acknowledged that it is testing a new feature in Shorts – automatic noise reduction, sharpening, and image quality enhancement. As explained by Rene Ritchie from YouTube, this is an "experiment with traditional machine learning, similar to what smartphones do when recording videos".
Missing choice and growing concerns among experts
The difference is that in the case of a phone, the user decides for themselves whether they want to use such features. On YouTube, creators have no choice – the platform makes changes top-down. Samuel Wooley, a disinformation researcher, warns that this is manipulation of content without the authors' knowledge. Experts point out that YouTube tries to distinguish "machine learning" from generative AI, but it is just a play on words – in both cases, we are dealing with interference of an algorithm in reality.
This is not the first time that technology undermines the authenticity of images. Samsung has previously been caught artificially enhancing photos of the Moon, and Google Pixel offers the "Best Take" feature, which creates the perfect shot of faces composed from different images. The latest Pixel 10 also allows for 100x zoom, which the camera is actually incapable of achieving. According to critics, this is another step towards a world where it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish real images from those generated by AI.
Creators Divided
Although many YouTubers are sounding the alarm, some – like Rick Beato – are trying to approach the matter more calmly. – "YouTube has changed my life. I'm not surprised that they are experimenting with new tools. It's a company that is always moving forward," he concludes. The problem, however, remains: what will happen to our trust in reality when it is not the creators, but algorithms that begin to decide how the world looks on the screen?
