If you spend a lot of time watchingYouTube videos, you’ve likely encountered a misleading trailer for a show or movie popping up inyour recommendations, with AI-generated voiceovers and video clips.
Many of these trailers take clips from actual movie trailers and splice them together withAI-generated slop. As a result, sometimes viewers can be deceived into thinking the trailers are real, causing them to amass millions of views. A recentDeadline investigationrevealed that a “handful of Hollywood studios” were asking YouTube to redirect some of the ad revenue from those trailers “in their direction.”
Deadline didn’t name any of the studios, but due to its reporting, YouTube suspended two prominent fake movie trailer channels, Screen Culture and KH Studio, from its partnership program, effectively cutting off any ad revenue they generate. Now, YouTube is taking further action against fake movie trailer channels in an effort to crackdown on the ad revenue these misleading, AI-generated trailers generate.
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FollowingDeadline’s reporting, YouTube has acted against two additional fake movie trailer channels. It has now removed ad revenue from Screen Trailers and Royal Trailer, both of which are alternative accounts for Screen Culture and KH Studio.
One of the most recent AI-generated movie trailers from Screen Trailers is a misleading trailer for “Titanic 2.” Which is indeed, just as bonkers as it sounds. What are they going to do? Sink the ship again? You can watch the trailer above if you dare, but at least you can take solace in the fact that it’s no longer generating ad revenue for the creators.
The latest video from Royal Trailer is a fake AI-generated trailer for Toy Story 5, which might have the worst AI voiceover I have ever heard. However, in just 3 days since being uploaded, it has already amassed over 144,000 views, so many people have clicked on it.
According toDeadline, YouTube’s monetization policies state that if creators use content from others, they must “change it significantly to make it your own” and should not make it for the “sole purpose of getting views.” YouTube’smisinformation policyalso states that content cannot be posted on its platform that has been “technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users.”
“Our enforcement decisions, including suspensions from the YouTube partner program, apply to all channels that may be owned or operated by the impacted creator,” YouTube said in a statement to Deadline.
SAG-AFTRA, an American labor union for actors, actresses, and other media professionals, said in a statement to Deadline that:
“Monetizing unauthorized, unwanted, and subpar uses of human-centered IP is a race to the bottom. It incentivizes technology companies and short-term gains at the expense of lasting human creative endeavor.”
