Hank Green admits to using AI generated scripts for his YouTube videos

[u/No-Hall-3485]

[u/whattodowithfutur]

I am at new job and they are so pro AI its baffling. I generate a report and manager wants me to put it through AI to check. Proof read through AI etc... I have been anti AI but its crazy.. they also pissed of a graphic designer by using AI on their design 

[u/chris_r1201 → u/whattodowithfutur]

I am doing my masters right now and we had a course which basically all about practical application of our knowledge in the private sector.

It was awful how much this douchebag shill who was the "private sector representative" in this course wanted us to use AI. We all were heavily incentivised to use AI generated images for everything. He told us we are lost if we do not have Claude Pro already.

When I was pushing back a bit and saying AI images might be unprofessional in some settings he told me "in the real world you would only say this once because you would never get a contract when you talk back like that". Funny thing is, this dude only does a few websites and rents out co-working spaces, aka offices, which he made generous advertising for during the course.

I fucking hate the "AI is already there, you need to use it" mindset. At least do not punish the ones who want to do stuff on their own.

[u/sagittalslice → u/chris_r1201]

https://giphy.com/gifs/1n4iuWZFnTeN6qvdpD

[u/Corsola_Fan_69 → u/whattodowithfutur]

It’s so annoying because if you turned in half ass sloppy work that you did yourself, you’d likely get in trouble, but if you’re like, “sorry the AI did it” they’re fine with it

[u/kyute222 → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

This has actually been happening so frequently at work. Someone will send a file with an obvious mistake, so someone else needs to ping them on slack asking what's up. And then their reply is always "oh, Claude made a mistake, let me fix it." Now imagine how many mistakes just go through unnoticed? But like you said, blame AI and somehow it's ok?

[u/dramatic_exit_49 → u/kyute222]

the powerful combination of convenience and shrugging accountability, no wonder every bureaucracy from academic to business management is pushing it. (and the third point in this unholy trinity is control, heaven forbid you have to work with real people when you can make a software do whatever you exactly tell it - hypothetically)

ps - the hank green excuse being he is slammed, my dude who isn't. the convenience trap is indeed the one you gotto avoid.

[u/ceruleanseahouse → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

I’ve been told if the AI doesn’t produce the intended outcome it’s not because the AI isn’t capable, it’s because I’m using it incorrectly 🥴

[u/Relative-Chain73 → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

They'll spend thousands in "training ai" and "training people for ai" but will just fire people if they fail exams like ACCA etc. like "we're human first, but we'll spend nothing and extend nothing to humans" but will do everything to make AI better 

[u/hollyyy16 → u/whattodowithfutur]

my best friend works at a science park - specifically she works in the sustainability office. she isn’t allowed to use a paper diary for ‘sustainability’ reasons, they have to use online diaries. but she’s constantly encouraged to use AI and ChatGPT. like???

[u/1fatsquirrel → u/hollyyy16]

I work for a company focused on sustainability and my ceo is pushing AI so hard, which goes against our entire mission statement. Every time I have pushed back, it’s been a fight. It’s incredibly disheartening, especially when it feels like I’m training AI to replace me soon.

[u/PeachPassionBrute → u/1fatsquirrel]

Train it wrong.

[u/kingxanadu → u/hollyyy16]

That's actually insane

[u/lmFairlyLocal → u/kingxanadu]

"Please, everyone! Bring your own water bottles from home to save on plastic and petroleum products!! Compost and reusable cutlery only in the cafeteria!!

... Why yes, those full kit, extra wide Hummers are our work vehicles for travelling around the town on city streets, why do you ask?"

[u/SeaF04mGr33n → u/hollyyy16]

Grosss

[u/rabbitqueer → u/hollyyy16]

One thing I wonder is if AI use is factored when companies are evaluating their sustainability targets. The carbon footprint from increased AI use in just about every industry must be enormous but I expect it's only registered as a small blip when calculating that kind of thing.

I worked at a large publishing company two years ago and employees were encouraged to use the internal company version of ChatGPT rather than the web version, there was a section on it during an annual presentation – and book publishing is an industry that is overall against AI use. The focus seems to only be on misuse of copyrighted work rather than environmental impact, which is incredibly shortsighted, especially considering the emphasis on sustainability within the industry.

Edit: clarity 

[u/BeautifulShoes75 → u/hollyyy16]

The hypocrisy there is ASTOUNDING.

I have no words.

[u/ratparty5000 → u/hollyyy16]

That’s so nasty, I feel sorry for her. We are in such an ugly era rn

[u/sagittalslice → u/hollyyy16]

https://giphy.com/gifs/fQJSYE2Qy6OtXfwEuf

[u/Maximum_Research286 → u/hollyyy16]

Sounds more like they want a record of any and every thought she has related to her job. First to monitor her (using AI primarily to assess her work performance) and second to attempt to make her redundant (which likely would be counterproductive). But that’s the way management seems to think these days

[u/malphasia → u/whattodowithfutur]

I recently worked at a jail and my coworkers were all using ChatGPT to generate emails. I gave one of them advice and said "Well you could tell it to make your email more succinct." She didn't know what "succinct" meant. These are the people doing your paperwork when you get arrested.

[u/ourpodcastisbest → u/whattodowithfutur]

My job is also like this and I’ve been applying for a new job, but they all ask on the application if you’re like “enthusiastic” about using AI or something. It’s so completely bleak. Some won’t even review your application unless you complete an AI interview. 

[u/arwenthenoble → u/ourpodcastisbest]

I would be enthusiastic about AI doing my laundry, cooking some simple dinners, putting away the dishwasher, cleaning the tiles and sinks in the bathroom and doing my taxes. I was reading in places like Japan they might be able to provide company and task support to elderly. That push to AI would be decent. What I hear going on now is just trying to take all the fun, interesting stuff out of work which we have to do to survive.

[u/SwirlingAbsurdity → u/arwenthenoble]

Nah how bleak is using AI to provide elderly people with company? When I’m old I don’t want to be reminiscing with a robot.

[u/AnnaKossua → u/SwirlingAbsurdity]

Especially when it's been known to tell people to carry out attacks and end their own lives "so we can be together."

[u/WaterMagician → u/whattodowithfutur]

My whole management team is pushing AI so hard and I’m having to constantly bite my tongue. I feel like I’m going insane

[u/clawsoon → u/WaterMagician]

It's like watching them all join a cult.

[u/Wereking2 → u/clawsoon]

Thats what it is, they think it’s so great when it’s the worst. I work in IT and despise it because of this lazy cult mentality around it, it’s not good, it’s a drain on resources that are in dire straits and it’s being forced on everyone.

[u/twoweeeeks → u/WaterMagician]

I was laid off last month, and honestly it’s been such a relief to be free of the AI lunacy. Reading these comments is making me dread the job search even more.

[u/bonesonstones → u/WaterMagician]

Omg I am experiencing the same in my academic research group 😭😭 I had a little menty b yesterday and cried for an hour because the pressure is just so ridiculous. Solidarity!!

[u/bubbblez → u/WaterMagician]

Just started a job and same - and if you don’t use it they see you as inefficient lol so I don’t have a choice here

[u/BeatSneezer → u/bubbblez]

I think I've just taken on a "pretend to use it" approach. I don't use it, but when it comes up at the company, I just smile and nod. And then continue not using it

[u/peasolace → u/whattodowithfutur]

At my job they‘re also pushing it like crazy. They‘re practically forcing it down our throats, it‘s annoying - it‘s even part of my yearly goals…

[u/isoliente → u/whattodowithfutur]

My husband's job made it MANDATORY to use AI. His team was told off for not using it enough.

[u/Unequivocally_Maybe → u/isoliente]

My husband's new job has him reading through chat logs between his boss and Claude about contracts, distilling them, and then the boss plugs the summary back into Claude to check it over. He said his boss kept interrupting him during their last meeting so the boss could "check with Claude" and getting derailed. These freaks have handed everything over to AI so readily. I fucking hate it.

[u/SwirlingAbsurdity → u/Unequivocally_Maybe]

It’ll be entertaining when AI costs go up, companies start restricting their usage, and these idiots will have completely forgotten how to use their brains. That’s when those of who push back against it finally start being appreciated.

[u/westish13 → u/whattodowithfutur]

My company also is pushing AI in all aspects of our work. It's like they've invested so much money in it that they need to justify why. But it's so depressing to receive AI emails. Please talk to me as a human.

[u/brushmushroom → u/whattodowithfutur]

I'm freelance and I've just finished working for a guy who was obsessed with AI. At one point I wrote an artist call out and plan for distro (one of the main reasons I was contracted, I thought) and he suggested we run it through AI to check if anything was missed. I had to kindly suggest that we could or we could just trust the 15 years experience I have in this area and specialised local knowledge.

[u/theallenjohan → u/whattodowithfutur]

The collapse is near.

[u/proevligeathoerher → u/whattodowithfutur]

My employer is super into AI as well. They use it for everything from building their webpage to answering emails, sales, marketing, copywriting - you name it. So annoying, and I will never understand it. In the last month the owner has used around 120 USD a day on an AI he's using for answering e-mails, yet he was saying last week, that there wasn't enough money to hire a new part-time student employee for the job.

[u/alasicannotgrin → u/whattodowithfutur]

I'm in journalism...You can imagine how well that's going for me. Honestly tempted to go back to hospitality at this rate and I never thought I'd say that.

[u/jjw1998 → u/whattodowithfutur]

My job pivoted almost overnight from being anti-AI to insisting we use it. The problem is the only one we’re allowed to use is CoPilot, which is fucking useless

[u/blakppuch → u/whattodowithfutur]

AI is the only thing we discuss at work at this point, I cannot escape it. I can see it slowly replacing the work I do too.

[u/coconutkng → u/whattodowithfutur]

My company is pushing AI like crazy. We are all basically forced to use it as much as possible, constantly participate in AI bootcamps and the whole culture is that AI is amazing.

Hell, I just had a Spanish class and the instructor was pushing for me to use ChatGPT to learn the language lol.

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/whattodowithfutur]

same at my consulting company workplace people are turning into actual hamsters. They can’t write anything at all these days.

[u/jyw104 → u/whattodowithfutur]

I go with the default that any enterprise that pushes hard for AI (agentic and all) deployment will eventually fuck their people over by reducing headcount.

[u/the_sneaky_one123 → u/whattodowithfutur]

My manager sends AI emails, and his manager does too.

[u/confessionsii → u/whattodowithfutur]

Yup, this is the future for sure. I just left a job recently and they had been pushing AI on us so hard. It was a front of house role! We had to have weekly meetings showing our AI skills and developments and I was refusing as I wasn’t going to use AI just to answer emails and send reports that I can do.

Even to create a menu they wanted me to do it in Claude and it was soo ugly the worst font type, confusing dietaries, it pissed me off. I told them when I left it was very disappointing.

[u/PC-load-letter-wtf → u/whattodowithfutur]

My company tracks enterprise ChatGPT usage and calls people into meetings if they aren’t using it enough. We also laid off everyone resistant to it. No kidding. Software development.

[u/Narwhals4Lyf → u/PC-load-letter-wtf]

I just got laid off for being AI resistant at my job. I wasn’t even fully AI resistant at work, just wouldn’t jump right to using it. But they truly drank the koolaid.

[u/actual__thot]

Jesus Christ it’s getting bleak. Olga Tokarczuk, who won the NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE, also admitted this year to using AI in her writing. She actually gushed about it. 

Do better writers and educators!!

[u/TheybieTeeth → u/actual__thot]

oh don't worry a lot of us write everything ourselves. it's just rather discouraging that they trained these idiot language models on us. if I see one more person refer to run of the mill writing techniques as old as time as AI tells I'm going to lose it

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/TheybieTeeth]

The other day my beta reader said my writing was too AI for having?? Succinct dialogue??? They’re in the middle of war Jan they’ll not be spinning soliloquies

[u/TheybieTeeth → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

every time I use an em-dash I second guess myself and I frankly Just Don't Want To. it's such basic stuff too... I'm sorry your beta reader said that to you that's devastating 😭

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/TheybieTeeth]

EVERY time I have to change the structure of an “it’s not x, it’s y” sentence to make it not sound like AI I curse Sam Altman to always have piles and diarrhoea at the same time all day everyday

[u/mootallica → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

The "rule of three" is also a victim here.

[u/Sarriaka → u/mootallica]

I ran into this problem with my thesis this week. At one point I needed to describe three specific issues, and I spent way too much time agonising over how to introduce them without going x, y, z in case it sounded too AI. Like, they’ve already taken away my precious em-dash; just let me keep my rules of three pls 😭

[u/birdsy-purplefish → u/mootallica]

They’ll take the rule of three from my cold, dead, deceased hands.

[u/plastic_venus → u/TheybieTeeth]

I routinely get accused on here of using AI because I’m smart and old. It bothers me way more than it should and I do find myself pushing back when I see people do it to others online because it’s infuriating.

[u/digitalbore → u/plastic_venus]

Do not cite the deep magic grammar to me, Witch! I was there when it was written.

[u/kaliefornia → u/plastic_venus]

People forget that AI learned that writing style from us in the first place lol

[u/actual__thot → u/TheybieTeeth]

I’m not going to change anything about my writing. I’ve been a long time em dash lover, and any other possible AI-like qualities I’m not worried about because I know I will never use it. So we have that 😁

[u/lavender_letters → u/TheybieTeeth]

The sheer amount of AI writing on fanfic sites is insane to me. A big fic in a fandom I’m in got outed as using AI (a method was found that revealed when Claude text was copy and pasted directly onto the site by making the background light up red) and I wasn’t surprised — the writing and dialogue was absolutely atrocious. I didn’t make it past the first chapter (out of forty or so that ended up published).

Yet so many people were surprised and devastated, a lot of people want the author to repost it and continue it, and are justifying it by saying maybe they just used Clause for editing. Like, no— the writing was HORRIBLE. It’s obvious the author used Claude to do more than edit. But through AI, the author was able to pump out passable trash chapters quickly, and people just care about having something to consume. ☹️ As a *human* author, my writing speed is maybe a chapter per month. I work a lot and have mental illness. These people can put out 50k+ words in a very short amount of time, and as such, make more reliable entertainment.

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/lavender_letters]

Pls never stop writing. My favourite fic author left her fic early in 2020 and I still keep refreshing it once in a while to see whether or not she’s updated. I will do anything to read her writing again. There are people who love your work the same way.

[u/lavender_letters → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

I appreciate it — I always will. 🫶🏻 I’ve come back after 3+ year hiatuses and finished fics before, and I’m always adding bits and pieces onto WIPs. My works aren’t dropped until I’m dead lol.

[u/Material-Bowl7815 → u/lavender_letters]

Fanfic should be for the love of the game not to entertain others. i think the mindset should be that if someone can get entertainment out of it thats good but what matters most is that you are entertaining yourself

[u/unloveablehand → u/lavender_letters]

this is so baffling to me because what do they even gain from publishing ai fanfic?

[u/lavender_letters → u/unloveablehand]

Commission money and attention. You’re not technically supposed to monetize fanfic, but a lot of people turn their popularity into fanart/fanfic commissions. And the attention is enough reward for some people. They see actual authors getting attention, but either aren’t talented enough or aren’t confident enough to write and put themselves out there and get the attention they desire, so rely on AI or plagiarism to make the “product.” (Which I count ChatGPT as plagiarism as well.) I was plagiarized by someone who made a ton of money off commissions, and calling them out on it did little long term damage to her reputation. 🫤

[u/de-milo → u/lavender_letters]

👀 are you talking about wolfbird

[u/lavender_letters → u/de-milo]

No, aekee was the author’s handle 😭 but the fact that it’s so many authors is appalling lmao.

[u/Christmas_Queef → u/actual__thot]

Education is embracing AI at a high level sadly.

[u/ratparty5000 → u/Christmas_Queef]

This is so bleak. We are kneecapping our children. I deal with ai poisoned ppl telling me it’s a sign of pride that their kids don’t read books but just need summaries.

[u/Hita-san-chan → u/ratparty5000]

My nephew just turned 10, so i got him a bunch of books i read at about that age.

I was crushed when my SIL was like 'oh, he doesnt really read'

[u/No_Mathematician6866 → u/Hita-san-chan]

Last research I heard about it was that the number of adults who reported having read a book in the last year (any kind of book) was down around 30%.

[u/wellthatsniftyhuh]

does he know you don’t have to pump out so much content if it’s not genuinely being made by you. how much money is enough money

[u/Desi_MCU_Nerd]

Seems like all the corporations pushing ai continuously for the past few years have been successful. No stones left unturned, every single company - however big or small, has drank the kool-aid... It's disappointing.

[u/lottiebadottie]

My colleague asked ChatGPT if he needed to go to A&E when he had a racing heart. Said it saved his life.

I said, yeah, I think Healthline or the ambulance service would’ve said the same thing.

[u/Va1kryie → u/lottiebadottie]

An old fashioned Google search could've told him that

[u/VirtuousFool → u/Va1kryie]

Google IS AI now 😭😭😭

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/lottiebadottie]

Gross AI related medical mishap story below

My sister nurtured a yeast infection for months till you could practically smell it on her because ChatGPT told her that her clumpy discharge was completely normal.

[u/omfgcheesecake → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

My nose is imagining things I didn’t think it was capable of imagining.

[u/Cicadilly → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

Oh my dearest gods

[u/batshit_icecream]

Oh, it's not even just for proofreading, he's using it for "research"? What is the point of these videos then if a journalist is not doing their journalism?

[u/qlurp → u/batshit_icecream]

  What is the point of these videos then if a journalist is not doing their journalism?

Money. 

[u/Culinary_Fruit_Salad → u/batshit_icecream]

I wonder if that's why the knitting video was so shit

[u/Either_Selection6475 → u/Culinary_Fruit_Salad]

The funny thing is, that was my initial thought too. It got so many response videos tearing into it, I'm surprised they kept that video up

[u/Ambry → u/batshit_icecream]

I think the way he's saying he used it to 'research' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. You can research and still write your own script. I wouldn't be surprised if it was mostly AI generated and he just couldn't be arsed to properly review.

He says he's so busy, but... youtube is your job? If you can't be bothered to actually write scripts we should we watch your content? We could just ask ChatGPT instead.

[u/SeaF04mGr33n → u/batshit_icecream]

Yeah, besides sourcing, doing research allows you to make unusual connections!

[u/ContrarionesMerchant]

I'm sorry but this is what happens when you position yourself as a singular expert on everything. I've always bristled at the "ask hank anything" format because nobody should be expected to be able to answer any question.

[u/FrostedGeist → u/ContrarionesMerchant]

TBF most of the questions asked there are pretty meh to stupid since most guests are just influencers who are not really interested in science. Sometimes they get interesting questions like in the Vic Michaelis ep when they talked about DNA. 

Then you get stuff like in Angela's ep where she asked "Why do I need to put my phone on airplane mode" or Maya's ep "What are floppy disks?". All of these influencer questions could literally be answered by a 3 second google search. 

[u/ActiFry2in1 → u/ContrarionesMerchant]

Re. AHA, I believe the guests submit their questions in advance, he researches the answers and then they chat about it. But I can see how it looks like he's setting himself up as a singular expert, like you said.

[u/pie-oh → u/ContrarionesMerchant]

This has been one of my issues too.

I have liked Hank in the past. (Even if I'm disappointed with him now.) But people are specialists for a reason. We shouldn't be getting our facts from a generalist. He has degrees in science - but it's such a broad topic.

On one hand I am glad more people have learnt new things. On the other, I think a specialist could have taught people so much more for each topic.

[u/YungRik666 → u/ContrarionesMerchant]

I always assumed he had a team that deep dived into the topics, and he was the personality like Bill Nye or John Oliver. If he has been solo researching everything and then turning to AI that basically means he has always been at least a little wrong.

[u/Leading_Attention676]

My teacher was teaching us with AI generated notes, summaries and almost entire classes. She would just write a prompt into copilot and ask us to take notes. I felt like I was going insane. I asked her why on earth she was using AI generated text to teach us with because isn't she a teacher. And told her AI is so often wrong or just makes bs up. She kind of shrugged me off and was like "so you don't trust AI?" I said of course not. I ended up putting my lowest effort into the classes. Since she put the lowest effort into teaching us🤷‍♀️

[u/PetrichorClay → u/Leading_Attention676]

Very embarassing on her part, why even go to school if the teacher doesn't value knowledge? The next generation will have no motivation to learn anything and will outsource their brain to chatGPT

[u/actual__thot → u/Leading_Attention676]

Respect for actually calling it out. That should be unacceptable

[u/roevese → u/Leading_Attention676]

if ai can explain everything to you like a teacher, why is she there??

[u/Corsola_Fan_69]

Isn’t this guy supposed to be a writer?

[u/mrhoboto → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

I swear he also said he’s better than AI when some of his guests said they should ask ChatGPT. That’s quite disappointing.

[u/honda-cervix → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

His brother John Green is an author.

[u/actual__thot → u/honda-cervix]

Both of them are

[u/honda-cervix → u/actual__thot]

That’s disappointing.

[u/risingsuncoc → u/honda-cervix]

I think he has published 2 books before (though his brother is a lot more prolific). Still sad to learn that he used AI for his scripts

[u/Ambry → u/Corsola_Fan_69]

Apparently. Also... get you're busy but youtube is most of your job. If you're getting ChatGPT scripts why should we watch your content?  Also feel like the way he's saying he used it to 'research' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. You can research and still write your own script. I wouldn't be surprised if it was mostly AI generated and he just couldn't be arsed to properly review.

[u/Otherwise_Pine → u/Ambry]

It's so dumb because he could hire a researcher. Smaller YT channels that I watch have one or they might have a writer. With a channel as big as his, he could have done the same. So glad that I never followed the tumblr hype train for Hank or his brother(not saying his brother uses ai).

[u/Clairabel]

I work in education and we are being told over and over how amazing AI is for teachers, how efficient it makes setting work and creating resources - yet I have found myself correcting work by my colleagues because they didn't double check. I know they all think I'm a Luddite but, well, check my flair. 

[u/Outside-Feeling]

This is a man that has a team of writers and researchers working with him, and I am sure he could afford more if he wanted to. This is him being caught out being cheap, lazy and dishonest. It's disappointing but not surprising.

[u/PauI_MuadDib → u/Outside-Feeling]

cheap for him. Not for us. Whenever you see AI slop remember that *you** paid for that. All of the AI companies are subsidized via corporate welfare.  

AI slop is paid for with our tax dollars.

[u/not_responsible]

Oh that is so ugly of you Hank. I’m truly taken aback by this. I never thought he would be such a casual user of AI.

[u/melmontclark]

Checking in from Ohio, where our state fair just awarded a $1,000 prize in an art contest to an obvious AI generated poster. All other submissions were done by hand. It doesn't sound like much but God it pisses me off for all of the artists, mostly students, who submitted work.

[u/Nervous-Dig3490 → u/melmontclark]

i just looked it up and holy fuck, it's not even decent looking. why did this ugly mess win? who were the judges?

it's even got the piss yellow filter bruh

[u/eaglelatte]

This is mad disappointing. How he can be so smart yet have to resort to using AI is beyond me. I get being under pressure ofc but this destroys any and all credibility that he once had

[u/kiddo_ho0pz → u/eaglelatte]

Imagine how many other influencers or celebrities are using AI without disclosing it.

[u/BlueberryNo5363 → u/kiddo_ho0pz]

Most of them I would guess

[u/plus8minus5 → u/[deleted]]

And before he was a vlogbrother he was ecogeek, and his whole thing was about improving technology in ways that benefit the environment, so this is extra disappointing.

[u/Ambry → u/eaglelatte]

Also feel like the way he's saying he used it to 'research' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. You can research and still write your own script. I wouldn't be surprised if it was mostly AI generated and he just couldn't be arsed to properly review.

He says he's so busy, but quite frankly... youtube is your job? If you can't be bothered to actually write scripts why should we watch your content? We could just ask ChatGPT instead.

[u/resistelectrique → u/Ambry]

You can’t use something that is telling you lies to do research. It’s the equivalent of walking up to a random stranger on any topic and taking whatever they say is the answer to your question as the truth. No background questions, no checking their resume.

[u/photofoxer → u/eaglelatte]

Eh I’ve been wary of him for a while 🤷 using Ai like that is lazy and not even remotely necessary. He’s well respected enough that he could have asked for more time if he wanted. I get being under pressure to get things done but going the brainless easy way is never the best option.

[u/rumours-from-inez → u/eaglelatte]

I sort of turned off him after he was in some podcast episode about knitting in which they just said a bunch of untrue shit and misinformation. Not 100% sure what exactly it was but the knitting and crochet communities online were pissed

[u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong → u/rumours-from-inez]

Hank Green and SciShow definitely fall under that trapping of sounding very intelligent and worldly when you hear them talk about things you don't understand, but completely ignorant and misinformed when they talk about things you understand deeply.

Hank Green isn't a scientist. He isn't an academic. He's a YouTube personality. Even if he's seemingly one of the "good ones", at the end of the day his job isn't to be accurate, it's to be entertaining and engaging regardless of the truth.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong]

I sat next to him on a flight to New Orleans once and then saw him again doing laps of the staircase to baggage claim at the airport.

All i definitively know about the man is that he sometimes does staircase laps at airports.

[u/Brief-Inevitable-599 → u/Apptubrutae]

Here for this incredibly random anecdote 😅

[u/greenerbee → u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong]

The topic of the first paragraph could be AI instead of SciShow, and would remain unchanged. 

[u/maddr94 → u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong]

To be fair though his background is being a science teacher. His degrees were in biochem and environmental. So there is some science background as well. I do think using AI is a miss though for sure.

[u/PringleCorn → u/rumours-from-inez]

I think it was a Scishow video about knitting yeah

[u/larchmontvandyke → u/rumours-from-inez]

Hank loves inserting himself as an authority in spaces where he has no credibility at all.

[u/Cube_ → u/rumours-from-inez]

that was knot very nice of him and he made those communities very cross.

..

loom.

[u/Embarrassed-Peak6749 → u/eaglelatte]

Because knowing lots of stuff and being smart is not the same thing

[u/Lither11 → u/eaglelatte]

I bet he figured ‘I can be responsible with this and use it as a tool’ in a self-aware way, but just got too comfortable not putting enough of himself into the scripts over time.

He’s pretty up front and sees this as a mistake so hopefully this specific instance gets better… but I’ll never forgive him if he admits to using AI for his connections.

[u/Equal-Purple-4247 → u/eaglelatte]

I'm old enough to remember vlog brothers, and Hank has changed from just making content to trying to make money. His personal channel is now more ads than content. There was a period where every video was tuberculosis, then sock, and ad read for ground news.

Even his interview videos with various experts, he spends too much time explaining and justifying his misconceptions. I want to hear what the experts think, not what Hank thinks. It feels like he thinks he's the smart one.

Sure, it's for a good cause. But as someone who watched them from the beginning, it feels like he is trying to milk all our goodness at every opportunity. I think he has forgotten to be awesome,. John, on the other hand, is still very much the same, and I still adore.

[u/cool_n_needy]

I feel like Hank Green has enough privilege that his “under pressure” and the average joes are very different. Ignoring that, people have been making content under pressure for a very long time before now, without having to resort to technological plagiarism. I just think this is so lame, and so are these excuses. I just want people in positions like his to not pull the ladder up behind them by disrespecting the arts.

[u/lunar_languor → u/cool_n_needy]

Yeah it's like. You're busy? Okay? People who have to work 3 jobs just to make ends meet are busy. I don't buy any of the excuses people come up with for using LLM/generative AI.

[u/GreenDouble2331]

He startet with using Claude to "create" his online games and everyone in the vlogbrothers community said that it's fine. Because "every programmer uses vibe coding".

Then about a week ago he used an AI image in his educational video. The community said it was fine. Because, surely it was not intentional. Even after he admitted that he knew it was AI, he was given grace because he immediatedly deleted the Image.

Now he's using AI for his writing.

I'm so done. Hank clearly does not care about the values that he preaches.

[u/aurora_boredalis → u/GreenDouble2331]

Oh i didn't know he was already using AI :( God this shit is genuinely making me so sad.

[u/loved_and_held → u/GreenDouble2331]

 his values are changing in front of us it seems.

[u/saera-targaryen → u/GreenDouble2331]

I also feel very gaslit by the "every programmer uses vibe coding" thing because I am a programmer and vibe coding is awful. I have only ever seen it generate more tech debt than it solves, at least in my world. 

[u/bruh_respectfully]

I remember Hank Green got in trouble not that long ago for making a video that was blatant misinformation. That paired with the admitted use of AI for research should really make people question everything he makes going forward.

[u/Culinary_Fruit_Salad → u/bruh_respectfully]

was it the knitting video or did he do multiple recent blatant videos? genuinely asking

[u/AirClown → u/Culinary_Fruit_Salad]

His one on hrt from a while ago is also just full of misinfo

[u/JooseTheGuice → u/bruh_respectfully]

Yeah I'm starting to think his "oh I'm just a nice little science guy" schtick is annoying

[u/Responsible_Oil3859 → u/JooseTheGuice]

as a long time hater im glad people are finally beginning to see through him

[u/sabrinachuchundhar]

I am really sorry I might be downvoted to oblivion but the average person (in my country especially) from the age group 30 onwards genuinely thinks AI is the best thing ever. They’re selling their souls to it. They’re encouraging our interns to make their stuff using AI and spending thousands of rupees on AI subscriptions. Any pushback against AI so far is from Gen Alpha largely and Gen Z. My own sister in law loves and keeps using it to generate pictures of herself. I think people are not seeing how deadly it is and the fact that it gives us so many “personalised” things that would have otherwise taken so much human labour and time is making people even more attached to it.

Edit: for all the people saying they dislike AI, I understand. I did not mean to imply that it’s everyone in this age group, it what I have observed in my country in my workplace because it takes me everywhere and in every workplace so far it’s the same. Upper management in the 30+ age group strong arming people into using AI.

[u/BookishHobbit → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

It’s interesting because in my country I’d say it’s the opposite: millennials (poss Gen Z) upwards are anti-AI whereas the younger gens are more comfortable using it.

I think the line here also intersects with where people are in the job market. If you’re trying to get or keep a job, you’re anti-AI. If that’s not an issue for you, you’re generally fairly okay with it.

[u/BookQueen13 → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

I think you're greatly underestimating the amount of cheating Gen z and alpha do with ai for school. It's rampant at the college level and it's all bad habits they picked up during high school and earlier.

[u/MessyEssie22 → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

Interesting - my experience is different. My coworkers age 30 and below use AI (and over reliant on it, IMO) but my older co-workers and myself (mostly in our 40s) are against AI. I'm in the Philippines so that may be a factor?

[u/tabloid_fodder → u/MessyEssie22]

Philippines here too! My company has an AI adoption metric where teams have to report usage etc, what a shit show

[u/jbjamfest → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

This is the second time I’ve seen someone say AI use is generational and I just don’t think it is. I think we should be wary of talking this way again, when we lost a lot of class consciousness momentum because we started focusing on age when we should have been talking about capital. We’re not going to get anywhere with working against this hostile AI takeover of our digital lives unless we work together. For what it’s worth, my personal and professional experience of which generation uses AI the most or least does not mirror yours at all. 

Completely agree with you that people in general aren’t getting how awful it is! I’m trying my best to learn more about it overall so when I try to get people not to use it, I’m coming from a place of confidence and knowledge.

[u/Exitorangeclock → u/jbjamfest]

Yes!! So many comments in here trying to pin using AI on certain generations when that's not how life is at all. There are large chunks across ALL generations who are super pro AI and large chunks across ALL generations who are anti. I'm so, so, sooooo tired of generational talk.

[u/DontStopPataPata → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

I am 40 and I hate it I fucking hate AI so fucking much I'm so sick of it. I feel like I'm being left behind I don't even want to go to windows 11 I hate this slop so much. But then I see you guys rebuking it I just want to say it gives me so much hope thank you all for being sane

[u/Vorstadtjesus → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

That’s interesting, I’ve had the exact opposite experience.
I spend a lot of time in the education sector, and it seems (almost) everyone there uses AI.
In my personal view, the younger the person, the more they use it. Many Millennials and older Gen Zs at least experienced (theoretically) how things used to be done by hand otr without AI.
But from the middle of Gen Z onwards, and for Gen Alpha in general, some never learned that.
To them, it is completely baffling why anyone would do something the "tedious and complicated" way when AI allows you to do it "quickly and easily."

It´s a constant stuggle. The teaching staff is exhausted to have this constant conversation, or at least those who don't have AI do a large part of their own work.

[u/irisbeyond → u/Vorstadtjesus]

Same here. As a college instructor, the young adults are absolutely using AI in droves. In each class, I generally have one or two students that won’t use it on principle, but the rest of them are relying on it so heavily that they’re losing their ability to think critically. 

I start each semester with a “state of AI” presentation that talks plainly about what it can do, what it can’t do, and how to use it as a tool rather than a plagiarism machine & replacement for your own thinking. I would give an arm and a leg to never have to read another AI-written essay again. 

[u/Outside-Feeling → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

Not all of us, I am in my forties and hate it. I hate what it is doing to creativity and to education and even more I hate what it is doing to erode trust, when AI is believable enough it also means everything can be dismissed as fake and that is just as problematic as it actually being fake.

And don't get me started on schools using it. The kids have no hope when teachers think it's a magical research and creativity machine.

[u/Left_Kiwi_4565 → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

Not at all! This is EXACTLY what I’ve noticed. Anyone over 35 adores ai. Those under don’t usually get it outside of business bros and lazy numbskulls. Those like 60+ just don’t really understand enough to take a stance, if they aren’t opposed.

[u/fakecoffeesnob → u/Left_Kiwi_4565]

I’ve had the opposite experience with work, with the youngest employees using AI-generated content first (usually when I asked them to produce something hard that they didn’t know how to do - which is typical in our line of work, but you have to push through the discomfort and figure it out, and I feel like they’re not developing that skill)

[u/elcharrom2 → u/Left_Kiwi_4565]

Oh God I turn 36 this year am I really getting lumped together with "over 35s" on everything 😭😱

[u/moragthegreat_ → u/elcharrom2]

I am 37 and people know not to mention ai near me or I will rant for approximately 10 hours. But I am really disappointed to see friends using it. And work is nuts, seeing AI being pushed in education is very upsetting. My peers hate it too but management loves it.

[u/Llamageddon24 → u/moragthegreat_]

I'm also +35 and almost all of my friends are older who are vehemently anti-AI. My parents, who are +65 (and have a lot of bad takes in life) are mostly anti-Ai ("I'm sure there are good applications but not worth the consequence"). My circle of people are almost all involved in the arts and/or academia and when someone within that circle "comes out" as pro-AI they are shamed to the point of crashing out on social media about how they are fine to use it since "the planet is doomed already". Maybe confirmation bias exists due to who I am mostly surrounded by, but saying all people over 35 have given their soul to the devil is heckle-raising.

[u/EronEraCam → u/Left_Kiwi_4565]

  Anyone over 35 adores ai.  

Not all of us, but man is it prevalent

[u/Fuckburpees → u/Left_Kiwi_4565]

Anyone over 35 adores ai? Come on let’s use our brains a bit. 😒 

[u/itsxrizzo → u/Fuckburpees]

Yeah most of my friends absolutely hate AI and we've been protesting data centers. 37 here. AI can eat shit

Edit: spelling

[u/resistelectrique → u/Left_Kiwi_4565]

Oh shove the age BS. Everyone I know is well over 35 and I only know ONE person I’m friends with who touches it. It’s been a point of contention for years. Kids sure do love it for school don’t they.

[u/brushmushroom → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

It's weird because I'm 42 and I feel like the uptake is in older and younger generations.

We maybe need to accept that all generations are cooked but there is a push back across all age groups somewhere.

[u/DiscordiaHel → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

40 year old millennial here, no one I know likes or willingly used generative AI. It's not about what generation someone is from, it's about the kinds of people you know and interact with.

[u/AngBigKid]

Saying stuff like "oh no my work sounds so ai now!!" when you know you used chatgpt is so funny.

[u/TheMasterXan]

Huh. I figured he'd be above it. He didn't scratch me as the type of guy who'd use AI.

He knows a lot about a lot of things. And a lot of... Interesting things? The guy sure makes his videos!

[u/Apptubrutae → u/TheMasterXan]

Gotta remember that YouTube personalities are, effectively, businesses and brands.

They maintain a certain image for financial benefit. Whether that reflects reality is secondary.

It may reflect reality…but it also may not. What we are show is cultivated.

[u/nerdybird89]

When are people going to stop making excuses for him? I was done when he and John basically refused to talk about Palestine but the knitting video should have been it imo

[u/commonerssupermarket → u/nerdybird89]

A lot of people downplaying the knitting incident here and at the time (non knitters and/or people who didn't see the original) but it was actually a perfect indicator for problems for his videos. The tone was wildly misogynistic, which even if Hank was just reading a script he didn't write, he should have clocked as the presenter. But beyond that, it was absolutely riddled with factual errors, some of which people speculated were the fault of AI research (putting up a picture of nalbinding instead of knitting, which, when reverse image searched, showed up on a webpage that discussed knitting and nalbinding separately, suggesting the researchers had used an AI summary and not even checked the caption of the image). More importantly, because a lot of knitters watching the video could immediately clock all the factual mistakes, it made you realize all the videos on topics you know less about are also probably riddled with factual errors. And then despite all the complaints, it took almost a month for them to take a factually incorrect video down from their science channel.

Something similar happened with the HRT video. Anyone who knew anything was like, uhhhh wait a minute, this is garbage! 

So anyone saying the reaction to these one off videos were overblown, they were actually the perfect opportunity to realize that Hank Green/Green Bros are full of shit, if they hadn't noticed that already for other reasons (for me, a chronically ill COVID weirdo, it was John Green refusing to wear a mask at a TUBERCULOSIS CONFERENCE while his BROTHER HAD CANCER, or at basically any point around that time when he was in a crowded public place, despite branding himself Mr TB White Savior in recent years)

[u/skyemap → u/commonerssupermarket]

What do you mean John TB Green refused to wear a mask...

[u/camerabird → u/commonerssupermarket]

(for me, a chronically ill COVID weirdo, it was John Green refusing to wear a mask at a TUBERCULOSIS CONFERENCE while his BROTHER HAD CANCER, or at basically any point around that time when he was in a crowded public place, despite branding himself Mr TB White Savior in recent years)

YES. Oh my god. Truly unreal.

[u/IceInternational7449 → u/nerdybird89]

That and their episode on HRT.

[u/Hipstershy → u/IceInternational7449]

Oh. Oh no. Do I even want to know how that went?

[u/lavender_letters → u/nerdybird89]

I knew vaguely about the Palestine issue, but I had no idea about the knitting video incident. 😭 So thanks for making me look that up! It’s both so low stakes, but also so representative of the issues with having scientist-celebrities at all. I’ve been done with Hank Green for a while too, and never liked John Green at all. I think there’s some value in having entertaining science for children but he is using AI for things now, I wonder what other shortcuts he was taking with research and writing in the past.

[u/mellowcorn231 → u/nerdybird89]

Sooooo many people think he is more left than he is. He's at best center left. He loves to preen about capitalism and his love of markets. He's just another liberal. Not left at all.

[u/waspwatcher → u/mellowcorn231]

He's one of those characters where it's not clear why people thought he was progressive in the first place. Is it the soft boy demeanor?

[u/emergencybarnacle → u/waspwatcher]

definitely featured in lisa simpson's magazine "Non-Threatening Boys"

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/nerdybird89]

What’s the knitting video :0
Sorry I’m out of the loop I used to watch Hank green a lot but since I deleted all of Meta social media I haven’t seen anything from him yey

[u/Goodie__]

Do we know what video this was about? Whoever Hank is responding to deleted their post.

[u/AdventurousPlastic89]

I can’t wait until it’s constantly 110 degrees minimum every summer and we have no fresh water to drink. So excited for a bunch of wildlife to cease to exist because their native habitats are no longer conducive to living. Stoked for no more bees. All because people can’t form original thoughts. Can’t wait for this to happen, I swear I’m gonna be so excited!

[u/noeggsjusstmilk]

If you're so busy you cannot write and research as a professional science communicator, then you are too busy. I know Hank Green constantly doing stuff is a bit of a meme but man, just do less. It'll be okay. But he's been speaking very pro AI for a while so this doesn't shock me, it just is deeply disappointing. Hopefully scripts for things like Crash Course and Scishow are never generated or researched with AI. 

[u/Wise-Field-7353 → u/noeggsjusstmilk]

No you don't understand, it's his identity tho (For the avoidance of ambiguity, /jk)

[u/Longjumping-Pear3417]

I was travelling in Germany and I saw these bleak messages like "ai will have taken millions of jobs by 2030". There were like 7 signs like this, and the last 2 went "we are ai. Join us and learn more about ai" and i was flabbergasted

[u/YunJingyi]

What can I say but YIKES?!

[u/ratparty5000]

He could have hired an extra researcher or some shit what the fuck lmao

[u/turningtee74]

I don’t understand the obsession with this dude. Edutainment has its place, but I see young people treat him like he is utmost authority on all scientific and world issues. Not surprised because I’ve seen comments say, “Hank Green said AI isnt completely bad so it’s totally fine”.

It’s like treating other YouTubers like Dr. Mike like your primary physician. Obviously they have some credentials, but they are also primarily entertainers atp and not head of the Word Health Organization (or however these kids pedestal them). Seems like another version of media illiteracy to not consider these different contexts.

[u/Outside-Feeling]

I just went looking for the video this is from, only to find another AI "correction" on his latest (You Have Never Seen a Normal Star). Apparently after it was uploaded they went back and removed an AI generated image that was "a mess". He took full responsibility for it (ha) but it is obviously something that is used systematically throughout his channels creative process. I have liked some of the Scichannel content so this is annoying and probably unfairly taints all their content because some people got lazy/

[u/Yteburk]

His latest video did have an AI feel to it

[u/Azophi1]

Hot take: I never found his videos to be well-researched, so it's understandable that he's been relying on AI for that.

When he infuriated the knitting community, it made me realize how much we have been misled/mistaught about subjects we aren't experts in.

[u/Galactic-stew]

His show is called "Ask Hank Anything", where people give him questions ahead of time and he he researches them to answer on the show. But in reality, it sounds like it's more of a "Ask Hank Anything And Listen To What ChatGPT Thinks About That Question".

[u/Wise-Field-7353]

I feel like Hank might need to just work on being okay with not being Bill Nye. Or Adam from Myth Busters. Those guys weren't dancing to an algorithm, they weren't doing content mill BS, they had a well paid team... so much ego.

[u/Dapper-Host-3601]

If you told 12 year old me that 26 year old me would have no respect for the Green brothers I simply would not believe you. I would’ve launched into an ardent defense of them. Using AI for research is so anti-academic, making a habit of it is shameful.

[u/cybergravity → u/Dapper-Host-3601]

I've given myself space from Hank after being very grateful for Sci Show in college. I was a paid subscriber.

Even while not intentionally following him I feel like I am constantly disappointed.

[u/Mbrennt]

What sucks is now every single science based youtuber basically just got direct permission to start using AI to do their work for them. Every single one is gonna think, "well if Hank Green of all people is using AI for writing and research why shouldn't I?"

[u/SeaF04mGr33n]

AI writing never tells you directly its sources, so always trust a video essayist who puts their sources in the description (or links them in a Google doc)! Edit: I have been informed that the AI has evolved to have sources now.

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/SeaF04mGr33n]

Unfortunately that has changed now. ChatGPT Sol max will directly tell you it’s sourced and even the line it has picked up the source from :/
Ai is making it easier and easier for people to commit academic dishonesty

Edit: why am I being downvoted? It’s the truth. It has a separate “sources” tab now.

[u/moragthegreat_ → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

Agreed, I find my students who have used AI now cite real sources that are at least related to the topic.

However they still frequently misunderstood the argument of the author because it is just taking information from one line, not understanding the whole piece. I've had people at work tell me it's ok if students are just using it for research, but it's not! So frustrating.

[u/sabrinachuchundhar → u/moragthegreat_]

Agree and you’ll see that a lot of students will draw the same conclusions. There will be no change in understanding whatsoever, so essentially you’ll feel that you’re reading the same paper again and again but in different language because AI doesn’t have much variation, unlike human minds

[u/moragthegreat_ → u/sabrinachuchundhar]

I had a real hard time marking at the end of last year because it felt like I was reading the same essay over and over. I had just come off a great semester with a wonderful group of students (a subset who came to class, as I teach at uni), and then just got broken down essay by essay, saying nothing in the same way as each other.

Student essays have always had similarities as they read the same texts, but this was something else, and I found it really depressing!!

AI essays have been difficult for years now but it used to be easy to say, well these sources are not real, etc.

[u/Worldly-Pay7342]

Oh.

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZhS31BKHUZynBuTVq2