YouTube Is Letting A.I. Screw Over Content Creators

[00:00:00]So, for those that don't know, our guy Sage, friend of the show, family of the show, um, and another friend of the show, Zephierre, um, have been dealing with some issues, and it's some issues that a lot of YouTubers have been being faced with lately.

[00:00:21]Um, it's absolutely crazy. Sage's second channel. The anime channel is still up, but Sage's second channel was demonetized.

[00:00:38]He says, "I'm waking up this morning to find out um that my channel TSO Sage is no longer eligible." Thank you. for monetization due to misleading family content. Uh let's let's let's even look up what that means.

[00:00:55]What what do y'all think this means?

[00:00:56]Misleading family content.

[00:00:59]>> Um >> my first thought would be uh claiming to have family-friendly content that's not familyfriendly.

[00:01:07]>> You could pull it up yourself.

[00:01:08]>> Yeah, I believe that's that's what it is.

[00:01:12]Misleading family content refers to material that deceptively uses family-friendly or kid-friendly packaging such as titles, thumbnails, or child-focused characters. Wow. But contains adult themes, violence, or dangerous behaviors. Platforms like YouTube strictly prohibit this content to protect minors from harm. Pack kid-friendly packaging such as titles, thumbnails, or child focused characters.

[00:01:38]kid-friendly packaging such as titles, thumbnails, or child friendly or focused characters.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah, let me go back to what he said.

[00:01:56]Mhm. Uh, Sage says, "I can't even begin to express how wrong such a claim is, especially when it comes to a reaction channel like the one I've established.

[00:02:06]When uploading videos, I even make sure in the audience tab, no, it's not made for children or kids is always selected.

[00:02:15]In my six years as a creator and many more, as a user/viewer, I have never even heard of a scenario like this before. Certainly, my channel is not the blueprint or even remotely a violator of said guidelines. Please stop using AI detection and have a human manually fix this obvious error immediately.

[00:02:38]Wow.

[00:02:42]>> Yeah. I'm not going to lie. I'd be panicking, bro. I'd be panicking. Um, one I Are you going to read the the things that he can't do right now?

[00:02:53]the channel's demonetized. What do you mean?

[00:02:56]>> Well, specifically, he said uh he has to wait until 90 days to reapply to the partner program.

[00:03:03]>> And also, uh whatchamacallit like last month's pay, he's just not going to get even though like his channel was monetized during this period, he's just not going to get paid um for the last month or however many months.

[00:03:22]Easy.

[00:03:22]>> They did give him They did give him a a human eval.

[00:03:26]Um >> eventually >> I want y'all to Yeah, I want to read this human eval. Wow. The human eval is crazy. The human eval is crazy. After a comprehensive evaluation, our internal team has determined that your appeal is denied. We have reviewed your channel and found that a significant portion of your channel, significant portion of your channel, a significant portion of your channel is not in line with our YouTube partner program policy. Please find the specific policy violation below. It's the misleading of children.

[00:04:04]Yeah, I've I've dealt with [ __ ] like this before. It is just so annoying to deal with YouTube, the platform, especially when you're dealing with stuff that pauses payments, demonetizes your channel. For one, it is hard. It It already was before the AI [ __ ] It was already hard to get in touch with a real person. Um, and secondly, I ain't going to lie, I lost my train of thought. But that that that's that's the first point is that it it's just really really hard to to get in touch with a with a uh whatchamacallit real person.

[00:04:36]>> Today's video is sponsored to you by Prize Picks where now that we're in the playoffs, you can make all of your favorite daily fantasy picks for any sport that you please, especially basketball. Using code HMA, all new users can play $5 and instantly get $50 in lineups. If you need an example, here's one right here. And if you want to follow us and keep track with the picks that we make here on Let's Keep It with a Buck, follow at Boss with this new feature provided by Prize Pics to follow all of your favorite creators and keep track of their lineups. And with all that being said, shout out to Prize Pix for being today's sponsor of this video. This situation is certainly certainly crazy and at first I was kind of in the dark about it, but you know, Sage is our guy and I know some people that you know, work for Sage, so kind of got a little background detail about it. My whole thing was when this first happened, my initial thought one, I know I'm [ __ ] with the content creation. So I know I don't know everything, but I do know when you are selecting is this safe for kids? Yes or no? You hit no. And then another conversation a lot of people who were we were having well what was he selecting for the reasons like when you select the ad suitability the reasons why me personally I didn't know that it was common practice for creators to just select nothing like nothing's wrong like go all the way down and say nothing wrong now apparently Sage doesn't do that like I was I thought that's what he was doing and that probably was the issue apparently He doesn't do that. He does like me inappropriate uh language or whatever it is. Like one of the first two inappropriate language >> I do cuz I know how I talk in my videos and I don't want a situation like this to happen. So yeah, I do that. Um I figured a lot of people were doing that to a certain extent if that's what your content was. I didn't know everybody was just default nothing's wrong. Oh no, there's nothing cuz I figured something like this could happen.

[00:06:36]Yeah, but the the made for kids stuff is like one of the first bubbles that you have to select. You know what I'm saying? Like it's it's it's a separate thing from the ad suitability thing.

[00:06:47]>> Attability thing, >> which is which is a checkbox thing where people by default, a lot of people just do none of the above. The not made for kids content is a whole separate thing.

[00:06:57]And I've tried to upload videos before >> and it'll tell me like, yo, you haven't made the decision on this portion specifically, so we can't even upload your video as a draft or unlisted until you check is this uh is this video made for kids, yes or no. And the default for a lot of the content creators that we're associated with because I don't I don't I honestly don't know anyone who makes kid kids content is just checking no.

[00:07:22]You know what I'm saying? So >> this is this is this is one of those things where because this is where he's getting in trouble and this is where YouTube is wrong. Like YouTube is wrong in the interpretation as to what's going on. So on his channel he'll have who is the best uh duo of all time?

[00:07:43]Spongebob, Patrick, Mario, Luigi.

[00:07:47]Um, I don't know. Um, the the more Spongebob and you're saying these are the things they're saying is like attracting kids, but at the same time it's not kid-friendly content. The other cartoon stuff, if I had to if I had to make an educated guess, that's what they're saying is attracting kids. But the problem is is that like I could think of all of the what were they called? Were they called dubs all the time? There was a X-Men video and you know somebody dubbed the voice over it to be somebody else. The Hood X-Men, >> the Hood Captain Planet or whatever the case may be. And that will fall under the same category. I know that YouTube is changing its policies year in and year out.

[00:08:35]>> I get that.

[00:08:38]the the the option to change the policy, impact the rule, and then go back and and and you know, do damage control is something that I can't get I can't get behind. I can't get behind that.

[00:08:50]>> Can I just ask, are y'all familiar with any like kid channels or like with how YouTubers that are posting child-friendly content, how they're getting off their thumbnails and stuff like that.

[00:09:03]My daughter, she uses my YouTube to watch everything because she cries every time there's a damn ad. Yeah, I raise the monster. Um, my little cousin, he also YouTube demon. He watches YouTube.

[00:09:14]So, I'm always weary of what they're watching. I'mma share my screen. This is just my watch history on YouTube of like [ __ ] my daughter's watching right now >> compared to what we seen from Sage.

[00:09:28]Hold on.

[00:09:32]Okay.

[00:09:37]>> Okay. I don't know what the hell this react to nightmare thing is though. We got a conversation. But this is these are the thumbnails childfriendly content creators are getting off.

[00:09:49]>> But what happens when they get in the uh in the thing? I don't know. I think it's one of those things like they've clearly recognized Coco Melon or Spongebob as something that attracts children >> and then on on the underneath if you're punching a you know a chicken nugget >> of course that's violence >> how and they said they're on demonetization and monetization rules.

[00:10:15]How is this a situation in which um you know you get demonetized for it? And then also damn it's crazy that they picked this up. They also did the same thing for Zephier. I'm assuming that they're going to pick up a lot of those cartoon channels.

[00:10:30]>> Yeah.

[00:10:32]And I I just find it crazy because again when this was the second point I wanted to bring up earlier, people are just looking for an explanation ultimately. And they make it harder by adding the AI component to all of this.

[00:10:45]But like literally just point me to what I'm doing wrong so I know one if it actually qualifies for what you're telling me is you know is wrong and two so I don't know so I know moving forward how I need to move about making content.

[00:11:00]But every single time and I've had to deal with this on the TikTok side of things lately because they've been [ __ ] up my additional rewards. You you ask for an explanation. It's the default answer is always oh we have an automated system. This is out of my hands. I can't really do anything about it. Uh, sorry. Go kick rocks. Because I'm not gonna lie, I've I've had, again, I've had to deal with it with with Tik Tok over the last month. Long story short, uh, they hold me from like $2,000 of of of revenue that based off of the precedent of the content that I make, I should have had.

[00:11:36]And this is just consistent with any platform. Like I understand moderation is hard at scale, which is why they're implementing all this AI stuff, but at a certain point, you do have the resources to not make it as AI is needed. And especially for creators who have been creating content at a high level. And I I I do think um creators who have like a certain subscriber threshold, they do have access to like better resources than others. Especially for those creators, they should have an easier time um like getting in contact with a human at the very least. You know what I'm saying? Like if you want to do all the automated stuff for channels with 10,000 or less or or less subscribers, 5,000 or less subscribers, I can see that. But doing this for a guy who has what 170,000 plus, 200,000 subscribers, wherever many sub stages is at, and he's having trouble and having to go through all these different hurdles. Like that's insane, bro.

[00:12:34]>> I think that's just a I think that's a sign that there might not be humans that can help with this that are available anymore. That's what I that's how I'm reading it. Um, if you are an established creator who knows what you're doing and you know the guideline system and you're having this much trouble talking to a even the reactions that he was getting on Twitter, like that's what blew me. He yo, can I please get in touch with a real human here? All right, buddy. All right. Like I like what are we This is clearly still AI. What are we talking like human here?

[00:13:10]I reviewed your like come on dog.

[00:13:12]There's no humans to be had. Like right now the human that you will be talking to is just somebody who's going to adjust the AI program to re-examine your issue. Like that's that's all you're asking for. In reality, we're in a very chopped situ. like we're in a chopped time to where AI is really take it really took a lot of important jobs and one of those jobs being a person that knows enough about YouTube to help me with a situation like this.

[00:13:38]>> Yeah. And I I did watch Sage's video. He did make a good point. It's just interesting that like whenever stuff like this happens on the automated side, whenever you involve a human, [ __ ] is pretty easy to [ __ ] figure out. You know what I'm saying? It's it's very easy to just manually override things when you get a human to look at something and the human just clearly sees, yo, I mean, our automated system's [ __ ] up. So, I'mma press this button right here and just reverse whatever whatever wrongdoing was was done. Um, but yeah, he he can't even get that right now. And that that is what's what's annoying me is that a lot of these decisions are being made by automated systems and then the the people the even the humans that you can't get in contact with, they just kind of have to raise their hands and they can't do anything because hey, this is just our system. Like what what what kind of explanation is that, bro? Like that that's so ass. That's so ass.

[00:14:29]>> I do think and and shouts out to Sage because I think he did the best thing possible.

[00:14:35]Um, and it's because something like this has happened to us before.

[00:14:40]Well, we've had our um monetization taken away.

[00:14:44]>> Yeah.

[00:14:45]>> And let's not say took it away.

[00:14:47]>> B Souls and I messed up our monetization one time on the pod.

[00:14:52]>> I forgot what even happened.

[00:14:54]>> We tried to change.

[00:14:56]>> We tried to change the AdSense account and them [ __ ] is y'all doing? Matter of fact, we gonna put a pause on And we went a month, that was like a month, a month and a half without having no monetization on YouTube. Now, fire month, I ain't going to lie, we did get did get some bread that month, but um you know, Sage just set itself up to where that was just his third channel in in in in reference to revenue generating if I had to really think about it. you know, he's got his Twitch and he's still got his other YouTube channel, his main YouTube channel.

[00:15:36]>> But a lot of creators don't have that.

[00:15:38]And if you're left up to AI to make the decisions about your income, you're probably going to lose a decent amount of times.

[00:15:52]>> Yeah, that's that's tough. I did uh reach out to him yesterday because I was watching his stream, tried to help him out because there is a way to actually talk to a human in creator studio. So, I just helped him out in in that process.

[00:16:04]Apparently, he was actually able to get in touch with a human allegedly.

[00:16:09]And um like I said, I' I've been saying human just said, "Hey, man. I can't do anything about it, man. I ain't going to lie. This is this is just our policies."

[00:16:19]Like, "All right, bro. People are just looking for an explanation, dog." like like point me to my mistake. I think I think that's the bare minimum that creators deserve. Again, especially a creator as as big as Sage. Point me to my mistake.

[00:16:34]You can't even get that. Like that.

[00:16:35]That's That's Yeah, the only thing I can think of is the kid [ __ ] So, um definitely shouts out to Sage on that one. Hopefully that one works its way through out all these different things cuz that's janked up and I know he likes basically YouTube is saying if you're going to do cartoons any sorts of cartoons you need to be for kids doing cartoons and not as an adult who also likes kid cartoons trying to make adult content.

[00:17:11]>> That's that's crazy.