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It's Friday and YouTube is expanding access to a tool that automatically dubs videos into world languages. Sadly, brainrot translations are not available at this time.

Today's News

GENERATIVE AI

A new tool lets users see which videos have been used in generative AI training material

The context: A new report is diving into the contentious world of generative AI training material.

The companies developing large language models (LLMs) need comprehensive data sets to teach their AIs how to understand (and, in some cases, replicate) human culture. YouTube videos are sometimes included in those data sets without permission from the original uploaders. That unauthorized reuse doesn't sit well with many creators.

Videos included in these data sets often have identifying information removed. That made it hard to figure out which pieces of content had been repurposed for AI training — until now.

The report: As part of an investigation called AI Watchdog, The Atlantic delved into AI training sets in search of "unique identifiers" that could be traced back to specific YouTube videos. The results were telling: Tens of thousands of videos came from educational hubs like the BBC and TED, and hundreds of thousands were traced to individual creator channels.

A search bar on the Atlantic website lets users look up specific channels to see if their videos are being included in the training material. Meanwhile, spokespeople for Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta said they believed their use of the data sets to be above board.

The future: Creators can guard against unauthorized AI reuse by including overlays (such as watermarks or captions) to make their videos less appealing to genAI developers. Some platforms, like YouTube, provide an opt-out clause for creators who want to keep their content away from LLMs.

But the ultimate resolution of this dispute may come in court. One creator lawsuit against AI companies like Nvidia has already been dismissed, but a judicial consensus on this issue has not yet been reached.

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SINCERELY SALISH

Salish Matter's new Sephora-exclusive skincare brand shut down the American Dream mall

The girl: 15-year-old Salish Matter has been the face of her 58-year-old dad Jordan Matter's YouTube channel for years now. When they decided to launch a teen-aimed skincare brand, they expected a few thousand people to show up at the launch in New Jersey.

Instead, more than 80,000 people packed into New Jersey's American Dream mall, hoping to see Salish in person and be some of the first to get their hands on Sincerely Yours products.

The event was supposed to run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST, and the first 100 people in line were promised they'd receive either a meet-and-greet with Salish or a limited-edition Sincerely Yours sweatshirt. American Dream ended up cutting the event early, citing safety concerns and sparking complaints from attendees who said the launch was "completely unorganized [and] unsafe."

Despite logistical concerns, the Matters sold out of all their Sincerely Yours product within an hour. Mr. Matter tells us the crowd was "so big" and thanked fans for showing up.

The impact: In the launch's wake, Salish has gotten the kind of media attention you normally only see for major names like MrBeast and Kai Cenat. And while career photographer-turned-YouTuber Mr. Matter has cultivated a significant audience around Salish with will-they-won't-they videos about her love life and (scripted) wacky teen adventures, she's not as well-known as MrBeast or Cenat outside the digital video ecosphere. That makes this IRL experience one very interesting case study.

Check out our full report here.

HAVE A COW

Maya Higa's cow is bullying viewers into giving her treats—and they love it

The rescue: Maya Higa first hit "Go Live" in 2019, encouraged by streamer friends who thought she could do well singing and playing her guitar on camera. But everything changed when, during one stream, she gave a guest star spot to Bean, a juvenile red-tailed hawk she was professionally rehabilitating.

Viewers' overwhelmingly positive response to Bean and Higa's passion for conservation radically altered the trajectory of her content, and Higa began making plans to use her streaming presence to launch her own animal aid organization. In 2021, she successfully opened nonprofit rescue/virtual animal education hub Alveus Sanctuary in Austin, Texas.

To help bring in donations, Alveus runs 24-hour streams on its own Twitch channel, which has 315,000 followers. But while plenty of the stream's stars—like Awa and Akela, a pair of wolf hybrids, crows Abbott and Coconut, Fenn and Reed the red foxes, and Pushpop the tortoise—have worked their way into viewers' hearts, there's one who is become a bona fide star.

Winnie the Moo.

The strat: Winnie is a Red Angus cow who came to Alveus from the beef industry, and now is used to educate people on its environmental impact. There are two things that make her stand out from Alveus's other creatures:

So far, Winnie has helped raise $5,600 of a $10,000 goal. Not all of that money goes into her belly: Alveus says it helps cover feed, vet bills, and habitat upgrades for all of the sanctuary's residents.

Winnie's viewership continues to grow. She's even getting her own Youtooz plush. So keep an eye out—she may be our next Streamer of the Year. 👀

WATCH THIS

Hasan Piker was stunned by the killing of Charlie Kirk

The reaction: Progressive pundit Hasan Piker was supposed to debate conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk at Dartmouth College. On September 10, an assassin's bullet changed everything.

Piker was live on Twitch when he got the news that his political foe had been shot at an event in Utah. What followed was a 90-minute live reaction to the news, which has surfaced on a fan-run YouTube channel.

"This is a terrifying incident," Piker said. "The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome."

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.