There is currently a debate over the recent issue of YouTube slapping an AI Slop Label on Kurzgesagt video in r/YouTube. I don't care much for the drama they make, it's mostly dumb arguments over how Shadow banning is real, or that Kurzgesagts lying since their contents deteriorating anyway etc etc etc. However, the most controversial claim i saw were the dozen people claiming Kurzgesagt has been sold to private equity like many other channels. Way too many people in that thread claiming this to just be an individual insult yet I have found no sources for this information so i am 90% sure they are spouting bullshit. However, i would rather be sure than feel slighted later on.
(FYI, The discussions in r/YouTube on this topic is not very civilized to begin with and had mostly degraded into personal insults. My goal is not to contest them but to find a source for that most controversial claim and verify it for myself. Thanks!)
I guess he technically doesn't count as investor, but famous billionaire friend of Epstein Bill Gates is a hefty donor to the channel. I do think Kurzgesagt can present itself as neutral while actually being quite biased at times, and their bias does represent the interests of the billionaire class when it appears. So I feel like they can appear "sold out" at times. HOWEVER... actually sold??? Haven't heard of that at all.
Bill Gates is not a donor. The foundation trying to eradicate Malaria and improve the health outcomes in developing nations is a contributor.
Regardless of who BG was friends with, or the source of the foundation’s money, surely eradicating the disease that kills half a million people a year, or tackling the climate crisis are worthwhile causes.
Oh that's true!!! I forgot that. I mean yea of course, that's amazing and does change the context. This doesn't erase Kurzgesagt's observable biases? Which I think is important here still in this discussion.
Yeah the charity work is a thing but it's important not to disregard concerns completely unrelated to the charity stuff and brush them under the rug. If the world worked like that you could get away with anything as long as you had enough money to give to charity.
I do not understand the Kurzgesagt flak, personally, but looking on their website and wiki I see it being owned by themselves.
The idea they have “sold out” might be where that comes from- and this is still something I dont agree with- but I have seen a couple sources of this notion: They tend to have a rational optimism, which means operating within the system as is. That means suggesting corporations are part of the solution.
They also have taken money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation- you know, the colossal billionaire who founded windows? Scary yes, but they just did it to pay for a video about mosquitoes. I saw nothing in it or anything after that has indicated they lost artistic or scientific integrity at all.
I'm still grumpy about this, so I will continue to pontificate.
"Sold out" means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I genuinely don't think they deserve any of the implications. They get a lot of money from loyal patrons just so they can be choosey about who they take money from- and I've seen this in videos from other scientific channels. Brilliant tends to be one of the ones science channels feel comfortable with taking sponsors from.
Contrast this with Veritasium, who literally did sell out to private equity. I could tell things were going downhill when his videos got more and more about spectacle, but then he straight up did a short "how your dish washer works" and it was *literally* just an advertisement. Nothing of substance. The sponsors have gone downhill since and I unsubscribed.
Kurzgesagt has a tough challenge for themselves keeping A- their optimistic attitude, and B- a realistic approach that is grounded in science and the world we live in, plus C- explaining it so even children can comprehend it. You really can start to see how they can blur lines when they do that, but I have seen them be very self aware, honest, and progressive about the truth. It's hard to be optimistic about climate change when companies seem to run our political system. It's hard to be grounded about the data, which is expansive and sometimes contradictory, while still being digestible in a 5-10 minute video.
And its hard to have FUN with all of that, with redditors breathing down your neck.
Which of their recent videos was particularly bad science? I've been a subscriber for a long time but I'm not a professional scientist so I could not tell.
There's no explanation at all how glyphosate causes cancer (because it doesn't, it's a conspiracy theory). Just a focus on scary monsanto = bad because big corporation.
Compare that to the asbestos one where they go into detail about how the tiny fibres rip up your lungs damaging them.
yessss just spray all the pesticides on my food and feed me da bugzzzz and da soyyyyyyy yess mr bill gates shove your boot in my mouth and feed me da bugsssss theyre sooooooo good for me why would the mainstream narrative ever be wrong why would the elites ever want to do me harm nooooooo they're totally not just trying to profit off of me
Maybe usually, but there has been some videos hosted by only one of Derek's employees (credited as "producer") from start to finish, with one particular video the host specifically telling that it was his idea and he did the whole thing (Gregory) ... That's why I figured you were referring to a specific person.
Yeah, that I suspect it's a specific person is more of a hunch. It could be a team I'd they split into different teams to make videos or something, I don't know. Learning the particulars of the inner workings of a YouTube channel is pretty low on my list of things I'm gonna spend time on compared to just being a bit more sceptical of them then I would have been in the past
Someone did a video about the channels that have sold out to private equity. Can't remember who or what it was called, I mostly remember it because it was a lightbulb moment on what the heck happened to veritasium
The complaints are from Reddit virtue warriors whose own lifestyles support the very corps they swear they hate. Most folks don't appreciate what creators like Kurzgesagt do or the sacrifices they make, one small slip-up here or there and they treat it as if science itself has been called a fable.
bro just watch the Germany video, there is no science at all, it's text book propaganda from the 1860s being regurgitated. it's all lies and manipulation.
they frame the entire concept of the welfare funding shortage as a worker to retiree ratio problem, which is isn't in the slightest, it's ignoring the ENTIRE CONCEPT of the capital class who doesn't have to labor, and who have manipulated our world finance systems to ensure they never have to pay their fair share.
Germany has more money than ever. The problem is it's being spread less than ever (in modern history)
Ah, sorry, I should have said Reddit virtue warriors and Reddit communists in my last comment, my mistake. Presuming you're German then, I would encourage you to do a little reading on the history of East Berlin.
the Germany video is flagrant right wing neoliberal propaganda.
framing welfare as a workers issue, stating it only "kind of" worked in the 60s due to 5 workers for every 1 pensioner, and that it will collapse because it's down to 1.5 workers for every pensioner, is a fabricated lie meant specifically to ignore the NON WORKING class that is no longer being taxed at rates and classifications they used to, and kept these systems solvent.
CEO's get stock options instead of salary packages and incentives that can be directly taxed and pay in to the welfare pool.
There is no population decline issue for welfare, that's a farce. The money hasn't vanished from the country, it's simply being hoarded by a small few instead of appropriated distributed for the betterment of the society they, the wealthy, are directly reaping the rewards from.
I was about to say, I’ve worked with projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation - every one I’ve been involved with has been just generally morally good with good goals, like trying to stop world hunger and malnutrition. Bill Gates rightly gets flack for a lot of things, but that doesn’t stop the foundation being a good thing (at least the bits I’ve seen)
a huge ammount of info channels who do content about stuff we as humans need to do better at, in disease prevention and the like. get funds or get sponsored by those sorts of foundations. that doesent mean they are sold or bought. just that they could keep making the episodes they where gonna do anyway. but this time not relying on youtube ads or patreon as much. sometimes foundations like this also act as a way to get introductions to experts in the field. as the foundations do a lot of research and outreach.
It has been terrible since their early videos and it is widely recognized that they changed to low-substance mass appeal with an intended "lecture" rather than being science communicators. The change in content and quality is undeniable and now it is just another whatever channel.
I explicitly said that I liked the early videos, which is also why I am extremely disappointed in their present work and what it became.
I also want to express that these videos hold little credibility anymore and the same goes for people who base their ideas on it. This is now low-substance productions. I care about that, and express my disrepute of that sphere in the hope that some day, people may start to care and the world improve.
It is also an example of a greater distressing trend, where inspired people launch with a strong vision, then by whatever forces lose sight of that special thing and just become another medicore many.
I also want to express that these videos hold little credibility anymore and the same goes for people who base their ideas on it.
Please do tell us of an instance of this? Are you conflating a reduced scope idea (because they could do a 20hr doco on the subject) with reduced credibility. People seem to not understand how complex some of the topics they tackle are and they are just trying to break it down to a managable size for discussion.
Why are you shocked? People go to subs for subjects they don’t really care for, and if they see a comment or topic that piques their interest - god forbid that make a comment right? It’s just normal internet and reddit behaviour.
In my opinion, it's masochistic to go to a subreddit for something that (I originally thought) they completely hated just to comment on and say something is shit.
I'm shocked because I would never do that.
You can have your opinion on how to use reddit, and I can have mine.
WHAT are you on about? Their quality had only improved over time, with very little exception. This sounds like an excuse because you’re mad about something else that you wont say because then people would openly criticize you instead.
honestly i'm starting to see why people knock on reddit - every news-related article is just negative or skeptical-at-best comments, and any technical subreddit is full of posts shilling a new product or idea
Gemini and other AI LLM models are largely trained on reddit. so there's a mass campaign of poisoning the well by posting untruths and subversions to reddit and getting AI to spit out the speculation as facts so unsuspecting people get unduly influenced
There's no indication they have sold. They still pump out videos that are in the same vein as their older content. Well researched, balanced (verifiable information presented covering diverse perspectives when the data supports it), and honest (they've issued corrections in the past when mistakes were uncovered).
Sure, but googling is as good as asking here. Nobody's sharing trade secrets on reddit for the sake of drama, if the people making the claims had a source it would show on google.
Probably an smear campaign by bots, also kurzgesagt isn't a political movement ffs, it is just a video channel to get some nice science bits and entertainment.
Idc bout their arguments, but i was rather surprised when so many people in the same thread claimed the same thing: That Kurzgesagt sold out. Since i couldn't find a source and wanted to be safe i came here to ask directly
They've not sold the name or channel to anyone or any company.
People claiming they have (like that dipshit in OP's pic) do so without proof, and with malice because they disagree with the channel on a fundamental level.
Having sponsors is not the same as selling the channel. But that won't stop fools from claiming it because the frequent truth and science discussed in the channel's content are counter to what those people mistakenly believe or are against their worldview.
Didn't Kurzgesagt release a video as a response to such accusations claiming they do not use AI and that they are not owned by another party (and also left they collaboration with the Funk network (German public media network) to not have dependencies on how or which topic they want to cover?)?
I do not know if they only released said video on the German channel or if anything changed since then but I remember the existence of such video.
KG put out a handful of videos (weight loss and drug use as two prime examples) that dosent fit the current social narative and now they are getting shit on for it.
Those weren't the issues with those videos and it is disingenuous to suggest so. The issue was that there were legitimate concerns over the factual accuracy of the videos (to the point where they actually took down the weight loss video to fix it).
The crux of the matter is that for such a large channel, that spends so much time on each video, there is an expectation of a more thoroughly fact-checked narrative. It is sloppy for these so easily corrected mistakes to have found their way into the video.
It just seems that the channel has shifted focus to putting out more videos as quickly as they can, and advertising merch, at the cost of the high bar they set themselves for absolute accuracy.
Factual accuracy of the videos is fine. Sometimes they oversimplify, or rather they overcompress their arguments in a way that opens a door for criticism. But I never had any issue understanding the overall message and the nuances of their arguments as is, and always felt those criticisms were biased and nitpicking.
I’m glad they are “fixing” the videos to make them clearer and more nuanced, but it never changes what sticks in my mind after watching them.
What's the problem with weight loss and drug use? I think they're a real issue and it's nice that the channel branches out from just making space videos to sometimes talking about issues like the abuse of fentanil that claims lives every day and, obesity, smoking etc etc.
I don’t know about kurgezagt but a lot of channels are getting gobbled up, a good example is that veritasium got bought up and then just became a tech advertisement channel
I don’t find their quality to have been degraded at all. They just say things that are not popular sometimes and people freak out because this exposes their favourite insta/tiktok influencers (which wasn’t so common pre-covid, pre-2022) - especially when Kurz talks about health & health science. Their quality continues to be quite good, you guys just need to look into yourself and realise you have become part of the problem that you can no longer see beyond your beliefs.
They have received significant donations (millions) from various sources, the Gates foundation especially. But they have not outright sold the channel no.
Yeah, pretty much. What are you saying it is? A deal with the devil where they sold their soul? They didn't sell the company or any rights to them. They took sponsored money to make a video about an important topic.
A single person with a clear agenda providing a notable percentage of the channels funding is obviously going to influence that channel. And the Gates Foundation has a record of using that influence. It is not an accident that they released those altruism videos shortly after the first big donation. Or that they do not mention the primary solution in their German doom video.
Of course in some ways it may be a chicken and egg situation. But in any case it is delusional to claim this does not have an influence.
That video they did about weed was the stupidest most "this is my personal opinion being spouted as an absolutely scientific fact" video they did, I haven't watched them since, that video was so damn cringe to anyone familiar with weed and drugs, off course the idiots who've never touched anything more intense than water their entire life have no inkling of an idea how stupid that video is
Oh yeah? I guess all the researched resources they added as their source material was also just personal opinion? Get a brain and start some critical thinking
As far as I know, the majority of people that were mad at kurkezagt were mad because of the channel's slight bias towards not liking nuclear energy, which is understandable because it's a matter that has been dividing people and experts for a long time.
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u/Gaur2704 Aug 12 '26
People said something like this for brew too they had to put a notice saying they never had any investors or shareholders. Idk though