Google secretly 'enhanced' YouTube Shorts videos with AI filters

YouTube is being overrun with AI slop. And it probably doesn't help that YouTube itself, and owner Google, is where a lot of it is coming from. Using AI-powered tools to "enhance" videos, without telling anyone--including the creators who made said videos. YouTube viewers and video producers like Rhett Shull have noticed a certain sheen and smoothness to some videos that wasn't intentionally done by the original uploaders. This sort of filtering isn't new--in fact, you've probably seen it over-applied to old movie clips uploaded to TikTok and YouTube shorts, giving them an unnaturally smooth motion and overly glossy look for things like human skin.