Is It Theft? The Debate Over Tech Companies Using YouTube Content for AI Training
Multiple YouTube creators are accusing companies, including Apple, of stealing their content to train AI. Investigations by Wired and Proof News revealed that over 170,000 subtitles from more than 48,000 channels were used without permission. This issue affects not only small creators but also big names like PewDiePie, MrBeast, and Jimmy Kimmel. Tech video creator Marques Brownlee highlighted the problem, claiming that companies are stealing paid transcriptions of his videos. Wired's report emphasizes that some of the wealthiest AI companies used YouTube materials against the platform's rules. The controversy has sparked online debates about whether this practice constitutes theft.
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00:00Multiple YouTube creators are accusing a number of companies including Apple of
00:05stealing their content to train AI. Investigations done by Wired and Proof
00:09News claim that over 170,000 subtitles from over 48,000 different YouTube
00:15channels were used to train AI from multiple tech companies. And it's not
00:20just small creators that are being affected. According to the report, huge
00:24youtubers and even celebrities such as PewDiePie, MrBeast and even Jimmy
00:28Kimmel have been affected. MKBHD, a tech video creator allegedly affected by the
00:33situation, took to X shortly after the Wired article was published to write,
00:38fun fact, I pay a service by the minute for more accurate transcriptions of my
00:43own videos which I then upload to YouTube's backend. So companies that
00:47scrape transcripts are stealing paid work in more than one way. Not great. The
00:52official report from Wired on the situation reads, an investigation by
00:56Proof News found some of the wealthiest AI companies in the world have used
01:00material from thousands of YouTube videos to train AI. Companies did so
01:05despite YouTube's rules against harvesting materials from the platform
01:08without permission. Some are speaking out online condemning these companies for
01:13using YouTube subtitles, while others debate whether or not the practice can
01:17actually be considered stealing.