Dead Internet Theory: YouTube Is Quietly Using AI To Alter Content Without Permission

They can’t make AI look fully real, so they’re making real look AI.

Is YouTube quietly manipulating content creator’s videos on the platform with AI? There is a growing body of evidence that suggests Google is in fact using AI to manipulate the quality of videos and shorts.

A week ago, Rhett Shull, who has almost 750,000 subscribers, published a video after he noticed that some of his videos, along with some of his friends and favorite content creator’s videos, looked noticeably different after upload and on different platforms, giving a softened and “oil painting” aesthetic, as he described it, that has become common with AI art and videos.

Watch the video to see comparisons between different social media platforms.

Shull consulted her wife who is a professional photographer, and she thought Rhett looked “weird” and “fake.” She believes it “looks like AI.”

Shull also found a Reddit thread posted two months ago - “YouTube Shorts are almost certainly being AI upscaled” - that added to his suspicions. The account wrote:

I've been having an issue for several days, wherein Shorts looked "smeary", or as if there was an oil effect applied to them. I couldn't figure out what was different, but I just realized today that it's very likely some form of AI upscaling being applied to the videos.

For instance, Here's Hank Green from a "normal looking" short that I took a screenshot of earlier:

Hank Green in a somewhat low resolution YouTube short

And here is Hank Green literally less than 12 hours later:

Hank Green in the same short, at the same exact frame, but AI upscaled to look not low resolution

Both of these screenshots were taken of the same frame, on the same day, in the same browsing session, and at the same resolution settings. I genuinely thought I was losing my mind until I arrived at this conclusion...

It's very clear to see what appear to be upscaling artifacts in the bottom screenshot that you wouldn't expect to see from a simple resolution change, like the extra punchy shadows, and the weirdly sharp edges where brightness changes quickly. The most telling sign for me is that his hair looks like plastic in the "upscaled" version, which seems fairly common to me among upscaling AI models.

I thought it might be that only the higher resolutions have had this applied, but as you can see, even at the lowest resolution, it does not match the original screenshot:

A pixel-doubled close-up of Hank's ear in several different resolutions, all taken from the same frame.

It's possible that maybe there's some new codec I'm not aware of that just happens to apply this effect during encoding, but I don't find that likely. It seems as though it's being retroactively applied to shorts, whatever it is.

Another Reddit thread from 2023 posited the same question. The user wrote:

So, these pictures below are taken from a 144p video on YouTube. You cannot tell me that these aren't CNN upscaling artefacts.

So this raises the question of.... how exactly is this implemented? What model are they using which is tiny enough to run on (i assume) WebGL2? Is it a CNN inside of GLSL shaders? Is it something else? CPU side or GPU side?

And also... how have I not seen a single other person pointing this out, anywhere on the internet. Believe me I looked. Ain't no one talking about this.

EDIT: UPDATE this is doing it in ALL videos in chrome now. It only works in Chrome, not in Discord or Edge, so its not GPU/Windows f******. But the strange thing is other friends testing this with the same version of Chrome ***DONT*** have this? And the even stranger thing is... this is running on Intel Integrated Graphics...

Upon further research, there appears to be some evidence Google is in fact AI upscaling videos.

In January 2023, PC Gamer reported Nvidia released what the company calls RTX Video Super Resolution, which can “upscale [a] video with a native resolution anywhere between 360p and 1440p, and it'll work with video up to 144Hz frame rate.”

The new tool uses AI to improve the quality of video streaming for recent Nvidia graphics card owners. It works by removing blocky compression artefacts and then upscaling video resolution—so cleaning the input then blowing it up to the big screen. From Nvidia's videos of the feature so far, it appears the only option is 1080p -> 4K upscaling.

The new feature will work within the Chrome and Edge browsers, and also requires an Nvidia RTX 30-series or 40-series GPU to function. Nvidia didn't specify what exactly is required from those two GPU generations to get the new upscaling feature working, nor if there's any sort of performance impact, but at least this isn't a 40-series only feature.

The Verge also pointed out that this tech could be used to upscale YouTube videos.

In practice, a video demonstration of the tech at work on Apex Legends footage shows edges being sharpened, and video artifacts reduced. Nvidia’s demo shows RTX Video Super Resolution at work on a YouTube video, but its blog post notes that should work on “any video watched in a browser,” which should cover other streaming services like Netflix.

Needless to say, it appears YouTube is now implementing something similar that upscales some videos and shorts.

Shull and other users suggest that this may not be happening for nefarious reasons, but because YouTube is trying to compress bandwidth and perhaps save space on servers; downscale the video quality to save data and then apply an AI-upscale filter to restore some of the quality.

A lot of people in the comments of Shull’s video were not happy and expressed their concern for this.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

I’ve said it now a number of times that YouTube is hot trash. I have become so sick and tired of that Google abomination; and really just the internet in general.

I am glad more people are speaking out about YouTube’s AI manipulation because there have been a number of times I thought a video or short looked ‘off.’ Now I know why.

Psalm 101:7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

Something else worth mentioning about how garbage YouTube is how they have been charging for enhanced bitrate. You may have noticed these several years that a lot of videos you watch are not even at full resolution, even though you clicked on 1080p. Instead, you are forced to pay for YouTube Premium to get the full quality restored. It is claimed that this has no effect on the quality but that has not been my experience.

That one comment (see above) really is so true: “They can’t make AI look fully real, so they’re making real look AI.” So true. When it all looks fake you’ll be unable to decipher anything real. Sad, but true. This is what is happening with society at large. The strong majority of people project a false reality online. Everything is a script and a facade, everything has to have a filter. Then these people step outside and are unable to function properly because they think they are the star of their own blockbuster documentary; or the main character in a giant video game, and everyone around them is an NPC.

It feels as if everyone and everything is turning into cellophane; fake and see-through.

Yesterday I reported on the dead internet theory fact and how so much of the internet, the material and profiles we see and interact with, are just fake bots and AI-generated slop. YouTube’s AI-upscaling is further proof of this.

Yet, you need to fork over a digital ID to prove you are real and an adult, so you can view content that is altered with AI and are full comments that are fake, and anything that does not align with their made-up and fluent policies can get removed an instant.

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Job 24:13 They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

Google is run by a bunch of soulless Cretans that hate the light, they hate truth, are paid to push lies and deceit, and are making an even deader world for a dead people.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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