Comment on kurzgesagt – AI Slop Is Killing Our Channel

• _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They accepted, and continue to accept a great amount of money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That foundation owns over $11 billion in investments in the fossil fuel industry, including coal-burning utility companies.

  In return, there were quite a few videos that Kurzgesagt admits were funded directly by the Foundation, that exaggerate the positive influence corporations owned by the foundation have had. Videos which the CEO of Kurzgesagt has admitted they probably would not have made if the Foundation had not paid for them.

  question answered. if you don’t want to accept the CEO of Kurzgesagt word that they would not have made the videos if they hadn’t bee paid to, then that isn’t my problem. I’m not here to convince you, and I don’t mind if you don’t believe him.

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  • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I did a few searches and while I didn’t find that quote from Kurzgesagt’s CEO, I did find the contribution listed from a decade ago on the Gates foundation website. $570,000 paid out over four years. They also gave NPR $2,000,000 the next year.

    Since I didn’t find the CEOs quote you’ve mentioned, I can only question the context around it. Would those videos not have been made because the Gates foundation specifically tied the funding to those videos being created? Or would they not have been made because Kurzgesagt didn’t have the money to do so otherwise?

    Regardless, Kurzgesagt is a private company and if they wanted to conceal hidden agendas by corporate contributors, they would just keep quiet - not openly acknowledge that they made content with money given to them by some larger organisation.

    If we’re going to denounce any group of people that are connected via Bacon’s Law to a disastrous corporate industry, the moral high ground will be unachievable for the entirety of our species.

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    • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The Hated One did a video some years ago on the matter, if you’re curious then search it up because they list all their sources for everything including the quote from the CEO.

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      • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world ⁨39⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Thank you for linking that video and doing what you can to share these conflict free sources you hold in such esteem.

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  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Still waiting on that citation. (not of your own prior post)

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    • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I said what I said to voice my own opinion on their channel, I didn’t voice it as an indication that I was interested in debating the matter. I’ve already come to my own conclusions. read their website and their medium, or search up one of the deep dive videos on it if you’re really interested. I’m not going to go too far out of my way to convince anyone, since it doesn’t really harm me in any way if you believe me or not.

      I also didn’t say anywhere that you should stop watching their videos. you should, however, know who owns and funds every bit of media you consume, so that you can use that information to be healthily skeptical of things people are telling you, just as you are with me. I still watch fern., even though they are owned by PE, because their videos are high quality and mostly free of bias. but I keep in the back of my mind that they have corporate overlords that might want me to believe one thing or another.

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  • blakemiller@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I just think we need to be criticizing more important things than this. Kurz is not the organization we should be spending our outrage on.

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    • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I never told anyone to be outraged by it. You just got outraged because I criticized a channel you presumably like. I’ve literally said several times in this thread alone that I watch channels owned by PE.

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      • blakemiller@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I don’t really do online fights anymore. I check in on Lemmy twice a week max for a maybe a few minutes tops. I’d suggest getting involved with your local community as a great way to channel your energy rather than reply 5m after I posted a new comment. Take care ✌🏻

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  • xthexder@l.sw0.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    the CEO of Kurzgesagt word that they would not have made the videos if they hadn’t been paid to

    This on its own proves nothing bad. Some videos just require a bigger budget to make and can’t be made on their otherwise limited budget. Or the topic is just lower priority due to writer interests. If they were forced into covering specific topics then that’s a different story, but I haven’t seen any evidence that was the case.

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