I digitally sterilised by great aunt’s tablet. Removed YouTube. Removed Google’s slop news feed. Switched her browser to brave (no ads) and search engine to duckduckgo. Put on more sensible news outlets like the BBC and ITV.
Now she’s complaining that it’s “just not as good as it used to be”.
My great aunt is going into slop withdrawal.
It’s interesting to see the older people in my life not recognize clearly AI generated content that seems obvious. My theory is older folks don’t play video games so aren’t used to seeing digitally generated images and how realistic they can be, but also the subtle things that make it noticeably fake.
I suspect poor eyesight is also a factor.
To be fair, the first time I saw a modern AI generated picture, I thought it was real. You can spot it when you see a bunch of AI generated pictures and get used to the style. I find that they have a weird sheen and bokeh effect to them, or a high contrast. It’s uncanny.
Possibly that they’re too clear and too perfect. As most cameras and pictures aren’t that clear. They’re kind of like renaissance paintings where everyone is perfectly staged and captured.
I think it also has to do with how closely someone is looking. AI images look amazing at a glance, but a deeper inspection shows the weird unnatural flaws. I figured that some percentage of older people just glance at the image and take the immediate reaction.
I had a similar experience when elderly people insisted on having YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, without understanding how it actually works. I tried to explain the concept to them, but they didn’t really get it. I switched them to NewPipe, and while it worked, they immediately wanted the algorithmic recommendations back.
She was getting hundreds of notifications per day from Youtube of AI generated videos of Pope Leo doing bad stuff or something…
I know another gentleman who is “stubborn” and just said he doesn’t use the internet. No smart devices, just a flip phone with SMS and calls to keep in touch with family. He told me about how he had some guy around trying to sell him the internet and about how “he couldn’t understand that I refuse to use the internet”.
To some people that gentleman may seem like a hermit. But I told him he is absolutely right- he doesn’t need the internet. And public services should stop trying to require people to use the internet. He seems like a very happy man, a clean and tidy house that he’s proud of, and well rounded. Just listens to the radio and watches TV.
He is absolutely right. He doesn’t need the internet.
She was getting hundreds of notifications per day from Youtube of AI generated videos of Pope Leo doing bad stuff or something…
What the fuck.
Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was exactly. It was something like “Pope Leo breaks into Protestant Church”
It’s definitely youtube she is missing. You can give her a curated feed with some self hosted options, like specific channels that get downloaded and updated regularly.
Could be a good idea tbh. Maybe a third party client. Problem is, some of them don’t work.
I know some Christian YouTube channels she might enjoy that are actually pretty orthodox and not off the walls.
The problem with YouTube is also the ads. A while ago there was an AI generated robotic dog toy ad. Like advertising itself as a realistic robotic dog. That’s the type of thing she’d fall for immediately.
It’s easy to download whole channels with yt-dlp. Then I would just make her some folders in vlc I guess if you don’t want to spend money. Although a server is 200$ and then you could put them on jellyfin but ya, I don’t know of any serverless options that have a youtube feel to them.
