Hank Green, a novelist, comedian, and YouTuber with 3.2 million followers, recently apologized to his audience for his growing reliance on AI chatbots. The controversy began when, during a video on his educational channel Complexly, he used the phrase 'I appreciate the pushback,' which led viewers to suspect he had used a chatbot to write the script. Green acknowledged in a since-deleted X post that he had produced the video 'under a ton of pressure' and used ChatGPT 'for research on this script.' He also admitted the 'pushback' line was a response to the episode's guest. Green then offered a more in-depth apology on Reddit, where he said he was 'mortified' that he had 'let so many people down' and that he plans to reduce his video production as a result. Green insisted that he had only used ChatGPT to 'locate papers and other resources for learning about topics,' and that the words and 'takes' had still been his. He also admitted it was fair to criticize him for 'diluting' himself. He also clarified that he was 'not a pure AI-hater,' while also listing a number of concerns about the technology, including its impact on climate change and 'the speed at which these companies are trying to consolidate economic power.'

Green said he wanted to do more work like a recent meditative video 'where the writing was the whole thing and I felt it all the way down.' He also said he would probably make more videos with his 'dumb unscripted straight to camera thoughts.' 'But mostly I need to come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I’ve been getting from interacting with LLMs…with doing more and more and more and more…is not healthy for me or good for the world,' Green said. 'It is careless, and has disconnected me from where people are on this.'

Green said he would be pausing or posting less frequently to his various YouTube channels. He also mentioned that he needed to 'come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I’ve been getting from interacting with LLMs…with doing more and more and more and more…is not healthy for me or good for the world.' He added that he was 'careless' and had 'disconnected me from where people are on this.'

Source: techcrunch