Dude my coworker keeps sending me AI astrophysics videos because we have arguments about "new discoveries" not being real. It's going to make people dumb as hell. Tbf he already is

I have stopped using the youtube frontpage and blocked the algorithmic recommendations from appearing.
Now I only browse my subscriptions.
My recommendations for food history: Tasting History with Max Miller + Townsends
For Military History: Lindybeige
For Medieval Clothing: Bernadette Banner
Medieval Life: V. Birchwood
General History: Premodernist

you should look on fmhy.net (free media heck yea). It gathers all sorts of free internet content like linking to archives with history content or places to find recipes.
Worked better for me than a searchengine for starting with sourdough (my starters could be dead by now)

Respect for using the "Le Me" format.... It's an older code but it checks out.

I'm using https://aisloplist.com/ on Firefox and chrome. Seems to work well, not sure why it's not used by more people.

It's a community project / extension for identifying and blocking AI channels on YouTube.

Edit: another commenter in this thread mentioned an Android app YouTube Morphe which uses the same index. I don't know how to link to their comment.

Anyone interested in history better start collecting actual tangible history books before they're all destroyed, and read & learn from those books, before TPTB use computers & internet & ai to rewrite past history to change & omit past historical events for their own nefarious purposes.

This but for porn

i only watch history videos that either 3+ years old or from a youtuber i have some basic level of trust

Nebula is a pretty good source for History vids.

Try older videos or a different website

There’s a great quote “… the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” from Marcus Aurelius. With this in mind I’ve been regretting the kind of person YouTube has been dying my soul with.

I’ve unironically returned to books and writing/reviewing in notebooks to fill in the gaps of my time. You can get notebooks that fit in your pocket and can just pluck it out and review whatever ideas you’ve been chewing on lately instead starting up a video. I add to the notebooks as I read.

When I have more time in the evenings I can collate those notes into broader writing projects, which are mostly simple blog posts. This process has brought me a fantastic feeling of clarity.

What's been helpful recently is having a different native language than English. Coupled with the no translation extension that prevents YouTube's AI from dubbing stuff I already understand, I sometimes get interesting and specific recommendations.

Otherwise, stick to known channels.

EDIT: The downside of speaking multiple languages with YouTube's AI push is that it's gonna try to translate everything to you as if you were monolingual. Set YouTube in English and it will translate everything in English, even if you speak French or German. Set YouTube In French and it will translate everything in French even if you can speak English. This shit is horrible.

I'm sick of all the extremely shitty formulaic "Sci slop" channels with illustration mas by Chatgpt

I don't know if I'm using YouTube the right or the wrong way, but no, not seeing or watching any AI content. I watch like 5-7 channels, I only use the "subscriptions" page. I might watch a recommended video, but those are usually the old videos from the channels I have subscribed to. I have uBlock and another extension that blocks shorts. Maybe it is a shitfest, but I'm not witnessing it. There are plenty of decision we all make.

Tbh I’ve gotten almost 0 AI generated content in my YT recommendations. Algorithm knows I won’t like it I guess

My algorithm knows better. It knows I won't hesitate to delete my history and fuck up its metrics.

I watch history videos to fall asleep, think I've found 10 channels now that isn't ai slop. I'm always very skeptical when I click on a video from someone I don't know. It's annoying as hell

Imagine not using sub box for all your video. Fuck algorithm i am the algorithm now.

I found a really cool video I think comparing the pacific rim robots. Only got 2-3 minutes in because the AI voice over threw me off.

Checked out the channel and they made a kinda face reveal saying thank you for the views, with their actual voice. Even with their accent, I would have much preferred the human accented voice, verses the "perfect" computer voice

Fwiw you can report undisclosed AI videos now but removing the view from your watch history is prob also a good idea

I really like fall of civilizations podcast, there are many hours of well researched and produced history. And also for a smaller creater underthefigtree is very cozy.

It's gotten so bad.

I try to stick to my same subscribed to channels and even these days, the quality has dropped because their revenues are being affected by the AIpocalypse

It's a bad time all round

So some tricks and tips to ensure YouTube learns what videos you really want:

• Turn off autoplay, don't let it go down an algorithmic rabbit hole only allow it to see what you really want and click on
• Turn off the hover play on PC, this is annoying mouse over counts as watching they will be in your history despite no audio and you just had the mouse over it.. Again gives all sorts of slop in your history
• Subscribe to channels you like, yes YouTube will quickly learn if you binge a specific channel you like the creator and put it on your home feed, but if the home feed is a bit too much slop you want to be able to just look at your subs
• When you find that AI slop video and more from the same creator exists in your feed use the do not recommend this channel feature
• there is also a do not recommend video good for some evil click bait titles that Google tries to show you for weeks and still not interested
• the last two if it's persistent use the tell more/tell why

It's a long list but it's really 90% is the first two so your views are deliberate, sticking to subs is not a bad idea if the algorithm is particularly frustrating at the moment as it will also help limit the random walk. What anoys me the most is the first two are not account settings rather cookies so every new device I need to tell YouTube how to behave.

I recommend historiacivilis.com

YouTube Morphe for Android has an option to filter out AI videos (along with ads and sponsored segments too, of course).

There’s always Extra History! https://youtube.com/@extrahistory

years and years of back catalog to catch up on if you’re looking to kill several dozen hours

as long as the actual content is human created, a tts voice isn't that bad. some content creators are just not comfortable/confident enough to do the narration themselves

You're using Youtube wrong

The algorithms have always been evil. youtube is best as entertainment by your own hand picked curated creators.

all the shorts are mostly AI, some are just reposted from tiktok. and alot of wierd animal videos are AI generated.

here's two historians I enjoy, you may as well:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sarah+paine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1FrhkLQnCI

I've been enjoying History of Everything (Podcast) with Stakuyi for a bit now, definitely recommend.

The channel Historia Civilis has made excelent videos about the military exploits of ancient Greece and Rome. I highly recommend.

Yeah, no fucking thanks to the techbros wanting all of humanity to embrace this monstrosity by arguing AI is the "new normal".

It is sad how widespread the ai slop has become on youtube. The official Criterion collection channel just released a video which has scenes that are entirely AI-generated. The channel for the record company Analogue Sounds has as well. And even if the videos themselves doesn't contain AI-slop, then a lot of them have AI-generated thumbnails.

It is disheartening how many people are just mindlessly accepting AI-slop in their daily life.

Yeah, Same here honestly

Take the time to Take those little surveys,or click on the "do Not recommend Box".

If you do it enough times,it rights itself......for a while!

Sometimes you are lucky and that's just shitty AI translation and you can still switch to original audio.

Bro wym there's all kinds of great history content on yt. Drachinifel, cone of arc, ocean liner designs, Nick Zentner (if you like the geologic history of the PNW), the list goes on.

Recommend "The Rest is History" program on youtube, very good and a large catalog of videos, zero AI.

If you want some good channels:

History:

• The Operations Room - (My favorite video)
• Drachinifel
• Forgotten Weapons
• The Fat Electrician

More recent stuff:

• Perun
• Blinkov's Battlegrounds
• Covert Cabal
• What's Going On With Shipping
• Real Life Lore

Last time I looked, if you clicked on the thumbs down a new button appeared with some label like "don't show me more stuff like this".

Star Wars: the slop machine strikes back

The "Don't recommend channel" button has served me pretty well so far (although yeah, you'd have to go through something first to mark it as such).

Epic History