Youtube has come up with a new way to use AI for punishment. I’m noticing it in some of the car sales film channels. When you watch the clip online it comes through normally. But when you download it, the sound has been replaced by an AI-generated GERMAN version. It’s a perfect dub. These old filmstrip records have little blips every so often to remind the presenter to click the strip forward. (Some projectors had automatic blip sensors, but those were rare.) The dubbed version has the same blips, with the voice between them dubbed in German. The older clips aren’t dubbed yet, only the ones uploaded in the last few weeks.
Ve haff vays of makink you vatch de adwertissments!
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Later: I think this is done by the video downloader tool, not by Youtube. The downloader’s interface wants you to use MKV instead of MP4. It chooses MKV first, and you have to go through a couple of steps to get MP4. When I download the SAME videos in MKV they remain in English. So the problem is solved, but the reason for this odd reward/punishment trick is still mysterious. It doesn’t do German for most channels, only for the car-oriented ones. Maybe the programmer is a German who likes auto films, and simply added this trick for his own convenience?
Polistra's Mill 