YouTube has killed two of the biggest YouTube channels responsible for fake movie trailers.
Deadline reported that both Screen Culture and KH Studio, whose fake movie trailer videos had collectively generated billions of views, are now unavailable. A search for either channel now returns the same message:
This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.
Screen Culture and KH Studio had won millions of subscribers and billions of views for generating fake trailers that in many cases misled fans into thinking they were official. With the emergence of generative AI, the quality of these trailers improved, as did their ability to mislead.
Both Screen Culture and KH Studio were infamous on the internet after pumping out fake trailers for years, particularly for movies that fans either hoped Hollywood would end up making, or had announced but had yet to see an official debut trailer. As you’d expect, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a popular choice, and some of the fake trailers ended up outranking official ones on YouTube.
After Google demonetized both channels, they added disclaimers to their videos, such as “fan trailer,” “concept trailer,” and “parody,” but as Deadline points out, this desperate attempt to revive revenue was short lived, sparking Google’s latest action.
It’s important to note that the clampdown comes hot on the heels of Disney’s cease-and-desist letter to Google. The megacorp has accused Google of infringing its copyright “on a massive scale” by using its works to train its own generative AI models. Disney itself has licensed many of its iconic characters to OpenAI, alongside a $1 billion investment in the company behind app Sora 2 and ChatGPT.
For now, the online reaction to the news has been positive. “Finally,” said one redditor. “I’ve been trying so hard to block these two from appearing on any of my timelines. Very good news!” “Great, now can they shut down channels that peddle AI slop to children?” added another. “Definitely glad. It’s gotten so it can be challenging to find the actual trailers,” said one person.
While fake movie trailers are a big issue on YouTube, video games are suffering from the same problem. Last month, an AI-generated GTA 6 gameplay “leak” went viral while misleading an army of fans across social media. Amid a backlash, its creator later pulled the video, admitted it was AI-generated, and claimed it was all part of a social experiment.
Misleading videos made by generative AI have exploded on the internet in recent years as the technology has become more popular and accessible. And it is a problem that affects all entertainment. Last month, IGN reported on physicist Brian Cox, who went public with complaints about YouTube accounts that had used AI to create deepfakes of him saying “nonsense” about comet 3I/ATLAS. Similarly, Keanu Reeves recently hit out at AI deepfakes of the John Wick star selling products without his permission, insisting “it’s not a lot of fun.” In July, it was reported that Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
