YouTube has stopped monetizing videos of two fake AI-assisted movie trailer channels. After an investigation detailed the scale and intricacy of their output, YouTube disabled the ad revenue of Screen Culture and KH Studio trailers.
Screen Culture has made trailers that copy official material from franchises such as Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps with AI imagery to hint at enticing details about a film that appeal to its large-scale fandoms. KH Studio, on the other hand, creates offbeat versions of popular films, like a Squid Game season starring Leonardo DiCaprio and a James Bond movie with Margot Robbie and Henry Cavill.
The investigation carried out by Deadline, analysed how closely the two channels imitated major movies while blending in AI-generated assets. It revealed that several Hollywood studios, such as Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony, are secretly requesting YouTube to make sure that the ad revenue from the AI-based trailers goes to the studios, instead of safeguarding copyright.
The two AI-trailer channels were suspended from their partner program by the Google-owned video-hosting service due to a violation of monetization policies, they cannot earn ad revenue. However, YouTube’s decision can be appealed. The video-hosting platform’s monetization policies state that creators who borrow material from others “need to change it significantly to make it your own.” The videos cannot be duplicative and repetitive in nature and should not be created solely to get views.
Its misinformation policies also outline that content must not be technically manipulated or structured to mislead the viewers. KH Studio’s founder stated that the channel is intended for entertainment, using “what if” ideas rather than misleading viewers. They said, “I’ve been running KH Studio full-time for over three years now, putting everything into it. It’s tough to see it grouped under “misleading content” in the demonetization decision, when my goal has always been to explore creative possibilities – not to misrepresent real releases.”
Screen Culture founder Nikhil P. Chaudhari told Deadline that he oversees a team of a dozen editors who make as many as 12 videos per week under his instructions. Although the founder was unclear about the revenue, the channel’s views and subscribers have reached 1.4 billion and 1.4 million, respectively.
Chaudhari said, “What’s the harm?” for viewers misled by the trailers, further stating that most users are aware that the channel does not upload legitimate movie trailers. The publication asked YouTube several questions on how the algorithm boosts the fake trailers and how Screen Culture’s videos have outranked official trailers but YouTube declined to comment on it.
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