That one comedy sketch about AI enshittification really is evergreen, isn't it? As yet another domino in the sweeping wave of Internet censorship crackdowns spurred on by pearl-clutching activist groups worried about imaginary children at the expense of literally everybody else, YouTube is apparently just handing its moderation off to a robot.
Now, granted, there are plenty of things children shouldn't see on that site, but this feels like the worst possible way to go about addressing that problem. If you're part of the fraction of users that YouTube is testing this new system on, your entire watch history and activity will be fed to the AI, which will then decide whether or not they point to you being underage. If you've been watching too many Marvel clips lately, sorry, you're permanently locked in YouTube Kids mode now.
What to do if the AI makes a wrong call, as AI famously never does? Well, according to the Associated Press:
If the system has inaccurately called out a viewer as a minor, the mistake can be corrected by showing YouTube a government-issued identification card, a credit card or a selfie.
"YouTube was one of the first platforms to offer experiences designed specifically for young people, and we're proud to again be at the forefront of introducing technology that allows us to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy," James Beser, the video service's director of product management, wrote in a blog post about the age-verification system.
People still will be able to watch YouTube videos without logging into an account, but viewing that way triggers an automatic block on some content without proof of age.
That 'proof of age' being, you guessed it, a government-issued identification card, a credit card, or a selfie. If you happen to look young, you're shit out of luck unless you want to hand Google your ID or credit card info. This is terrible, this is messy, and this is going to no doubt get thousands of users wrongly banned when it rolls out to cover the entire US — but then again, that will give Google the excuse it needs to harvest personal data from those who wouldn't just hand it over willingly otherwise. I hate the new Internet.
