hi! i'm writing this all in one go, so please fogvie any messiness or generally slobery. I'm trying to capture the general essense of my youtube videos, since it seems like i won't be making many more of those anytime soon.
in short, for those unaware, it has now been confirmed that youtube is 100% using videos uploaded to the site for ai training. This means that i have no way of knowing what content of mine could be potentially used for google's dumb fucking ai bullshit. it seems like a small portion of videos, maybe less than 1%, are being used for this training. but with a site so massive, it's hard to feel comfortabl;e just knowing there's a chance your videos will be on there.
This is especially true for me: my videos feature my face and my voice, two things I very much wish to protect. i DO NOT want those precious parts of myself being fed into a machine like that. it's horrible, and i just cannot feel comfortable knowing that i'm giving those videos directly to a company unwilling to even hear me out on this.
I tried to reach out to google, but you litterally cannot contact them effectively if you're a youtuber of my size. you have to be in the partner program, something i was realistically never gonna achieve anytime soon, not on the satoshi900 channel at least. so i'm screwed!
but it's alright, it prompted a lot of good reflection on my end, and i'm glad i was able to make the videos i made! it was a valuable learning experience, a great way to get myself working on something, even if it was only for a little each day. it got me in a momentum, and i'm hoping to keep that rolling going forward.
i figured i would just keep the practice going, albiet in a different form factor. ultimately, i'm a writer, that's the thing that gives me the most joy. the only reason i was making youtube videos was because i felt like the kinds of stuff i wanted to write (the nonfiction at least) fit best in the youtube video essay format. i've recently been working on those videos, and i've had a lot of fun! Unfortunately, i will not be finsihing those projects, at lesat not as videos. i'll hopefully repurpose them into written posts, ones with a lot more polish than this, and upload them like i'm used to. it sucks, but maybe it's for the better, since writing was always my passion anyway.
as for the satoshi900 style of video content, i will also be shifting that to writing, i think. while i loved making those videos, i realize that i'm jjust not comfortable with my likeness being used for ai, and i don't feel like i can adiquetly prevent that anymore, not even on my own website like this. i'm okay with my words, my art, and my music though. or at least, i'm more okay with that, still not a fan, and i still would have major problems with any scraping that might happen on this site. but at the very least, it doesn't push past that tier that makes me feel the need to never put anything out there ever again. at the end of the day, i can't control how people use the stuff i put out there. they can download this html file and keep it on their computer forever. and i'm fine with that! But i'm not fine with people downloading pictures of me, or using my voice for their own dubious projects. and so, i will be stepping back in terms of video and audio from me directly.
i feel sad about this decision, but it's the only way i feel i can preserve my privacy in these times. maybe if we ever get proper ai data regulation i'll feel safe again. but right now i just don't.
however, that leaves me open to focus much more on this website, which i think is really a good thing in the end! This sort of content is where my roots are, and i do find web development a lot more fun and rewarding than making youtube videos!
so, expect a short blog style post like this every day! I can't promise i'll be able to keep it up forever, but this is certainly less demainding then video, and i do feel much better about the kinds of content i can upload here on this site.
lastly, before i completely drop youtube and become an online hermit (i won't really do that!), i want to link to my discord server! I made this months ago and never got around to really promoting it or using it, so it;'s gone untouched. but if anyone wants to contact me, this would be a good palce to do so!
thank you guys for understanding all this, and if any of you stick through this change, i deeplly thank you! i will be lookingh to set up an rss feed for these posts, so please stay tuned for that!
until next time,