YouTube removes channels earning from ads on fake AI movie trailers

YouTube has terminated two popular YouTube channels posting fake movie trailers generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The terminated accounts, Screen Culture and KH Studio, together garnered over two million subscribers and more than a billion views, Deadline reports.

Viewers attempting to access the AI-generated trailer channels were shown a message stating that the page was unavailable.

YouTube suspended ads on both channels earlier this year after Deadline’s investigation revealed that Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros. and Discovery were secretly asking YouTube to ensure that the ad revenue from the AI videos flowed in their direction.

The channels later resumed monetization after they began adding labels such as “fan trailer” and “parody” to their video titles, as required by YouTube, although the labeling wasn’t consistent.

Screen Culture founder Nikhil P. Chaudhari said his team exploited YouTube’s algorithm by posting fake trailers early and constantly iterating with videos.

There are no official statistics on the number of AI-generated videos currently on YouTube, but their number appears to be rapidly growing.

A recent study suggests that over 21% of YouTube Shorts videos may be created using AI. A third of these videos could be considered brainrot, a type of AI-generated, low-quality content that creates the effect of corroding the viewer’s intellectual state.

The movie industry, along with other creative fields, is concerned about the impact of AI on the livelihoods of its members. Worries peaked in 2023 when the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild’s strikes shut down Hollywood.

The strikes resulted in securing protections against the use of AI, including the stipulation that creatives cannot be replaced by technology and are not forced to use it.

The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in 2024, which secured safeguards from AI and automation.

Earlier this year, major Hollywood studios Disney and Universal sued Midjourney, the owner of an AI video generator, alleging that it had illegally trained its models on their intellectual property and was now generating images featuring their famous characters.

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