Serendipity35

 

David Pogue on Substack writes that "When you do a Google search these days, you generally see an AI Overview panel above the search results. It’s intended to summarize the answers to your query, so you don’t have to click any links. The first problem: By Google’s own calculations, the AI Overviews are incorrect 28% of the time. The bigger problem: AI is an environmental disaster. It’s already a monstrous energy hog, and its appetite is doubling every six months."

 He gives some data about this data center power situation:

• 4,200 data centers that AI companies have built and 1,500 more are going up as you read this
• By 2030, AI will consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity. That is enough to power every household in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania combined. Almost incomprehensible.
• 60% of that power will come from polluting power sources.
• Don’t care about the environment? How about your power bill? AI’s power needs have driven up electricity costs as much as 15% in the last year, with another 8.5% hike coming by the end of 2026.
• Add in more rolling blackouts during heat waves this summer.

But it’s not just Google, because almost every big company is eager to add AI to their products.

Pogue's note of hope is that a few people, like Sheila Morovati, are trying to make AI optional. Morovati is the founder and president of a nonprofit called HabitsofWaste.org. Her movement is called Opt-In AI with a goal of no AI at all unless someone asks for it. The default setting should be the most sustainable and least annoying option.

More at Rise Up, People! Make AI Optional! - David Pogue

 

YouTube is giving all creators 18 and over access to a tool that can detect whether their likeness has been copied and used in AI videos uploaded to the website. Known as deepfakes, these are AI-generated videos, images, or audio that make it look like someone said or did something they never actually said or did.

Team YouTube made an announcement, explaining that their "goal is to provide [users] with more peace of mind by giving [them] easy access to request the removal of unauthorized content." While their likeness detection tool is technically available only to creators, spokesperson Jack Malon said that anyone can use it. 

The tool allows you to:
Identify where your likeness shows up.
Understand if others are using your face in videos made with AI. 
Safeguard your identity by requesting removal of unauthorized content that uses your likeness directly in YouTube Studio.
Keep your viewers from being misled about you.

An AI model is trained on lots of real photos, videos, or audio of a person — the more data, the better the fake. Then, using techniques like generative adversarial networks (GANs) or diffusion models, the AI swaps faces, clones voices, or creates entirely new footage that mimics the person’s appearance, expressions, and voice. Modern tools can match lighting, lip movements, blinking, and even subtle mannerisms to make the result really convincing.

In a face swap, it replaces one person’s face with another face. A lip sync can change what someone appears to be saying
Voice cloning can copy someone’s voice from audio samples. What is known as full-body puppetry can control gestures and expressions and make a still photo “talk” and move.

Most articles about this technology are negative and point out risks, such as misinformation, non-consensual fake content, scams, identity fraud, and reputation damage.

If you do see positive uses, they will often not be called "deepfakes." The positive uses are still controversial but include the use of the technology in filmmaking, dubbing movies into other languages without reshoots, some accessibility tools, satire, education, and bringing historical figures “back to life.”

Some platforms like Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and Threads now label or remove certain deepfakes. 

A well-known example of a deepfake is the 2018 fabricated video of former U.S. President Barack Obama created by comedian and director Jordan Peele. Using artificial intelligence, Peele superimposed his own voice and facial movements onto a digitally replicated face of Obama, successfully demonstrating how AI can be used to put words into anyone's mouth.

YouTube announcement at https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/434105667

 

In April, the makers of Claude shared that the company's new AI model (Mythos 5) was too dangerous to release to the public. Weeks later, thanks to some tweaks, the new model (called Fable 5) was released to the public. Now, it has been announced that "Anthropic has suspended its powerful new AI model after US authorities raised security concerns just days following its public release."

I find some irony in these AI names. Mythos and Fables indeed.

MORE    Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI suspended over security fears  

The headline reads "YouTube will now automatically label AI videos." But the question is HOW will they do that?

Via YouTube's blog, we find that since 2024, they have been labeling content when creators disclose they've used AI tools. 

"Starting in May 2026, we’re rolling out new internal signals to help identify AI-generated content. If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label. As this technology continues to improve, creators remain in control. If a creator thinks their content was incorrectly identified as AI-generated, they can update the disclosure status in YouTube Studio. 
However, disclosures will remain permanent in a handful of cases, including: 
Content created using YouTube’s own AI tools, like Veo or Dream Screen. 
Content containing C2PA metadata indicating they were fully generative AI.
These changes are designed to balance transparency with creator control. It’s important to note that a disclosure label alone does not change how a video is recommended or whether it’s eligible to earn money."

In addition to its policing of AI content, the company has been investing in AI for things like its interactive search feature, Ask YouTube, a playlist generator for YouTube Music, AI video summaries, and other generative AI creation tools.

 

Of course, there is a YouTube video about this.