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Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

youtube.googleblog.com

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Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#41

Post by alttab »

atonse wrote: post #40

We currently don't allow our son to watch anything on youtube, simply because it's a cesspool of horrible videos for children. You're always almost one click away from some violent video where cartoon characters are getting their limbs chopped off, etc. And it's sickening that Google's done nothing about it. Secondly, I can't watch any video without it taking over my recommendations. Alex Jones for example. I still h…

>> There should be a way to watch a video once and not have it take over your recommendations.

Log out.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#42

Post by Elitroness »

toasterlovin wrote: post #28
Elitroness wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know who Ben Shapiro is so I'm just using him as an example and maybe he is noteworthy, but if the system tells everyone to watch Ben Shapiro videos of course everyone is gonna know who he is. Maybe he wouldn't be 'required knowledge' if youtube didn't force it and reinforce it on everyone. The current system doesn't tell you what people are interested in, it tells you what the system made the people pay inte…

To take the position that people only believe stuff because it is fed to them is incredibly patronizing. Sure, the fundamental dynamic of social media (that immediate and direct feedback about what captures user attention is used to determine what users see) makes things more polarized, but people are polarized to begin with. Conservatives are conservatives because they have a fundamentally different outlook about th…

I have not taken that position. To misrepresent the views of others to make your argument easier is very patronizing.

My post was about notoriety not belief. Many things, trends and personalities are created by the media, whether you believe what they say or not. Flat earth conspiracies would never have been repeated by NBA players if not because of Youtube's recommendation algorithm.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#43

Post by minimaxir »

It's worth noting that this blog post appeared less than 24 hours after BuzzFeed News posted an article explicitly highlighting the conspiracy theories in the recommended section: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/down-y...

I helped contribute to that article, feel free to ask any questions!

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#44

Post by apacheCamel »

ilaksh wrote: post #33

Unfortunately things are converging on the Chinese model. Young people in the US have been so brainwashed against anything really critical of the government that they are literally earnestly requesting political censorship.

How so? They are changing how recommendations work, they aren't removing videos based on agenda. I am also wondering how the brainwashing comment comes into play here, just because people do not believe in a conspiracy theory doesn't mean they are brainwashed. I also do not remember ever asking to be censored.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#45

Post by sametmax »

Elitroness wrote: post #42
toasterlovin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To take the position that people only believe stuff because it is fed to them is incredibly patronizing. Sure, the fundamental dynamic of social media (that immediate and direct feedback about what captures user attention is used to determine what users see) makes things more polarized, but people are polarized to begin with. Conservatives are conservatives because they have a fundamentally different outlook about th…

I have not taken that position. To misrepresent the views of others to make your argument easier is very patronizing. My post was about notoriety not belief. Many things, trends and personalities are created by the media, whether you believe what they say or not. Flat earth conspiracies would never have been repeated by NBA players if not because of Youtube's recommendation algorithm.

Way before internet, I remember people were talking about how Marilyn Manson had surgery to be able to suck himself

I also remember when I watched in disbelieve people saying the sun was going around the earth.

Internet is just the reflect of human nature. Flat earth theory would have existed without it.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#46

Post by Retra »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #39

I know this is about Youtube suggestions, but let me share another google property with suggestions: Google Mail. https://twitter.com/300_lines/status/1088288289042415617 ------------------------ Tweet: "Ugh. G-mail's suggested responses to an update from my aunt about my uncle's fight with cancer. Google Mail suggests: Will do! So cute! Love it!" ------------------------ If this is the quality of AI and their sugges…

Don't have google write your reply emails then? Sometimes you get a crappy solution because the problem being solved is just not worth the effort.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#47

Post by tivert »

jsheard wrote: post #31
bengale wrote: post #3

It does seem to be getting better, for a long while I had to make sure to clear my history of any conservative leaning videos or I'd end up down a rabbit hole. Too many and all of a sudden its bloody flat earth videos and other insane conspiracies. Made it very difficult to try and watch a balanced set of videos.

The way the algorithm pushes steadily more radical content is really concerning. Try making a completely fresh browser profile and deliberately browsing around right-leaning or "anti-SJW" channels and see how long it takes before YouTube starts pushing videos about white genocide and the impending destruction of western civilization by the muslim hordes (not very long in my experience). edit: I just tried this again…

> The way the algorithm pushes steadily more radical content is really concerning. Try making a completely fresh browser profile and deliberately browsing around right-leaning or "anti-SJW" channels and see how long it takes before YouTube starts pushing videos about white genocide and the impending destruction of western civilization by the muslim hordes (not very long in my experience).

Seems like they're trying to profile the user for recommendations too early, or just generally suggesting based on too small of a sample of videos. The blank profile is like a knife balanced on edge, where the slightest push will tip it one way or the other. If they'd just hold off the personalized recommendations entirely until you had 100 or 200 videos, it might be better.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#48

Post by nwellnhof »

alttab wrote: post #41
atonse wrote: post #40

We currently don't allow our son to watch anything on youtube, simply because it's a cesspool of horrible videos for children. You're always almost one click away from some violent video where cartoon characters are getting their limbs chopped off, etc. And it's sickening that Google's done nothing about it. Secondly, I can't watch any video without it taking over my recommendations. Alex Jones for example. I still h…

>> There should be a way to watch a video once and not have it take over your recommendations. Log out.

You can't log out of the YouTube Android app anymore. There's only an incognito mode.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#50

Post by luvjournalists »

minimaxir wrote: post #43

It's worth noting that this blog post appeared less than 24 hours after BuzzFeed News posted an article explicitly highlighting the conspiracy theories in the recommended section: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/down-y... I helped contribute to that article, feel free to ask any questions!

I noticed that you started the article by transferring guilt from an crude, anonymous Youtube comment about illegal immigrants, to a video posted by a think tank which was designated as a "hate group" by a private organization based on vague criteria, to a fickle recommendation algorithm which picked a valid (related content, just from a different angle) video, to Youtube and Google the company.

I also noticed that every one of the "bad recommendations" you picked out in your article falls on one side of the political spectrum.

My question is: when you cause a $1T monopoly with unprecedented control over the world's information to enhance its censorship algorithms with a news article, what motivates you? Is it just the feeling of power? Do you recognize that you have a particular viewpoint or philosophy that you're trying to protect? Or do you believe that you're only seeking the truth, that you're right, and everyone else is wrong?

edit: forgot another possible motivation: getting paid to do it, raised whole life to do it, don't care any further than that. (I'm not just trying to impugn, I literally have no idea what goes through journalists heads when they write articles like this)

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