Don't trust random videos on YouTube,
just because they "look and sound" as real people.
It is very bad that Google / YouTube knowingly accepts such "deepfake" videos,
with likely required, but not-easy-to-see "disclaimers" like this:
https://www.youtube.com/@TruthAxis-w4k
"⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fan-made channel and has no official affiliation with Yanis Varoufakis or any institution he is associated with. Our content is inspired by his publicly available speeches, writings, and economic critiques, created solely for educational and informational purposes. The voice used is synthesized and does not belong to⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fan-made channel and has no official affiliation with Yanis Varoufakis or any institution he is associated with. Our content is inspired by his publicly available speeches, writings, and economic critiques, created solely for educational and informational purposes. The voice used is synthesized and does not belong to Yanis Varoufakis. We use visual lip-syncing and refined narration only to improve clarity and present complex economic ideas in a more engaging and accessible ways. We use visual lip-syncing and refined narration only to improve clarity and present complex economic ideas in a more engaging and accessible way"
Clearly, dramatic videos are getting attention of people,and making money for YouTube,
at the cost of misinformation of people.
Should be required to be clearly labeled, filtered out or even banned if using identity of real people.
YouTube, fake videos and the age of AI
Obviously, "real" people and videos are often also not presenting real "true" information,
and usually there is no easy or any good way to find out what is "true" or not.
Still, stealing identity of people is completely different issue, and not correct.
At least there is an option to report an "Hide" such "users" from own YouTube channlel.
Yanis Varoufakis: The deepfake era has begun - YouTube @ UnHerd - YouTube
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks with Yanis Varoufakis about the unsettling rise of AI-generated deepfakes, using Varoufakis’s own experience as one of the most synthesised figures on YouTube as a chilling case study. The conversation delves into the "techno-feudal" power structures of Big Tech, where algorithms prioritise engagement and "rent-seeking" over truth, allowing misinformation to spread rapidly while the victims struggle to reclaim their own digital identities.Moving beyond the personal, they explore an imminent future in which audiovisual evidence can no longer be trusted, debating whether this will lead to a new era where arguments are judged solely on their merits, or a return to a medieval-like state where high-quality information becomes a luxury for the elite while the masses are left to navigate a sea of fabricated content.
Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents.
With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power.
Welcome to technofeudalism . . .
Explained by Google AI
Yanis Varoufakis's theory of Technofeudalism argues that traditional capitalism is dying, replaced by a new system where tech giants (like Amazon, Google, Meta) function as modern feudal lords controlling "cloud fiefs," extracting "cloud rent" (data/transactions) from users and businesses, essentially turning us into "cloud serfs" whose preferences are shaped by algorithms, rather than markets driving profit. Power shifts from owning productive capital (factories, machines) to owning cloud capital (networks, data, platforms), creating a new ruling class (cloudlords) above traditional capitalists and workers, who now serve these digital domains.
Key Aspects of Technofeudalism:
- Shift from Profit to Rent: Capitalism focused on profit from selling goods; technofeudalism extracts rent (like a percentage of sales on a platform) from activity on digital platforms, reducing the role of traditional profit-making.
- Cloud Capital: This new form of capital resides in digital infrastructure (phones, servers, networks) and controls access, unlike old capital that produced goods.
- Cloud Fiefs & Lords: Big tech companies act as landlords (lords) over their digital spaces (fiefs), extracting value from everyone using them, from small businesses to individual users.
- Cloud Serfs: Users (serfs) provide vast amounts of data, essentially working for free, to access these platforms, becoming enmeshed in feedback loops where algorithms train them to want what the platforms offer.
- Erosion of Markets: Tech platforms bypass traditional markets by directing users to purchases within their ecosystems, making them both the marketplace and the guide, notes Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Beyond Capitalism: It's seen as a post-capitalist system where machine-driven extraction replaces market competition, creating extreme wealth concentration and power for tech elites, says Singularity University and The Sanders Institute.
In essence, Varoufakis sees a fundamental shift from a system driven by industrial production and profit to one dominated by digital landlords extracting data and transaction fees from a captive user base, ending capitalism as we knew it, according to Penguin Books and The Beautiful Truth.
