YouTube Using AI To Secretly Alter Creators’ Videos Without Their Knowledge

YouTube took the liberty to make so-called “enhancements” to videos without notifying or seeking permission from creators, according to a report.

Among the creators who had content altered was musician Rick Beato, who told the BBC that he first noticed the changes when he watched his own videos.

“I was like ‘man, my hair looks strange’, Beato recalled. “And the closer I looked it almost seemed like I was wearing makeup.” said Beato, whose channel does deep dives into the music industry and boasts over 5 million subscribers. “I thought, ‘am just I imagining things?’”

BBC reports:

It turns out, he wasn’t. In recent months, YouTube has secretly used artificial intelligence (AI) to tweak people’s videos without letting them know or asking permission. Wrinkles in shirts seem more defined. Skin is sharper in some places and smoother in others. Pay close attention to ears, and you may notice them warp. These changes are small, barely visible without a side-by-side comparison. Yet some disturbed YouTubers say it gives their content a subtle and unwelcome AI-generated feeling.

There’s a larger trend at play. A growing share of reality is pre-processed by AI before it reaches us. Eventually, the question won’t be whether you can tell the difference, but whether it’s eroding our ties to the world around us.

Beato’s colleagues, including fellow music YouTuber Rhett Shul, also noticed that his content had been tweaked by the Google-owned video platform.

“The more I looked at it, the more upset I got,” Shull said. “If I wanted this terrible over-sharpening I would have done it myself. But the bigger thing is it looks AI-generated. I think that deeply misrepresents me and what I do and my voice on the internet. It could potentially erode the trust I have with my audience in a small way. It just bothers me.”

Shull was so furious about the issue that he posted a video on the subject.

In response to the controversy, YouTube came (somewhat) clean in a post on X.

“We’re running an experiment on select YouTube Shorts that uses traditional machine learning technology to unblur, denoise and improve clarity in videos during processing (similar to what a modern smartphone does when you record a video),” admitted Rene Ritchie, who lead’s YouTube’s editorial and creator liaison division. “YouTube is always working on ways to provide the best video quality and experience possible, and will continue to take creator and viewer feedback into consideration as we iterate and improve on these features.”

No GenAI, no upscaling. We’re running an experiment on select YouTube Shorts that uses traditional machine learning technology to unblur, denoise, and improve clarity in videos during processing (similar to what a modern smartphone does when you record a video)

YouTube is always… https://t.co/vrojrRGwNw

— YouTube Liaison (@YouTubeInsider) August 20, 2025

Eh, really?

Hi!

Here’s some additional context:https://t.co/6utv6heP0L

— YouTube Liaison (@YouTubeInsider) August 20, 2025

Some researchers fear that this type of technology could have widespread dystopian effects.

“You can make decisions about what you want your phone to do, and whether to turn on certain features. What we have here is a company manipulating content from leading users that is then being distributed to a public audience without the consent of the people who produce the videos,” Samuel Woolley of University of Pittsburgh said. “I think using the term ‘machine learning’ is an attempt to obscure the fact that they used AI because of concerns surrounding the technology. Machine learning is in fact a subfield of artificial intelligence.”