At first, the familiar timbre of President Obama's voice booming from my eight-year-old nephew's iPad put me at ease.
"Thank God he's listening to something educational," I thought.
And then this version Obama began arguing with Donald Trump about Roblox while they both swore like sailors.
No, I wasn't in the grip of some surreal fever dream.
I just received an unsettling introduction to the ever-increasing wave of YouTube's creepy AI "children's content."
While it may sound absurd, AI versions of Obama going on profanity-laced rants about video games are at the tame end of the spectrum.
Some videos are as weird as they are tasteless.
YouTube's extensive library of disturbing AI content is a bizarre abyss that's expanding daily- and it's designed to pull in children.
We at The Parent Watch want to give you the knowledge and tools to help you pull your kids back.
Understanding Deepfakes and AI
The first thing parents have to understand is that YouTube isn't just a content engine; it's a business.
Creators get paid for their videos once they reach a specific subscriber and view count. As a result, YouTube incentivizes creators to produce as much content as swiftly as possible to maximize potential profits.
However, creating viral content is a demanding job for even the most successful brands with multi-million dollar advertising budgets, let alone amateur creators.
Enter: AI videos and Deepfakes.
Deepfakes are videos that digitally manipulate the likeness of famous figures, typically for malicious or mischievous ends. When paired with AI, which can create entire scripts, images, and videos within seconds, creators can quickly generate viral YouTube content.
By merely entering a few words in an AI prompt, creators can craft full videos designed to capture the attention of their intended target.
Although the prevalence of AI videos stretches across every demographic on YouTube, the threat is amplified in the world of children's content.
Whereas adults may be more discerning about what they consume, an AI video created with the keywords "Bluey fights Batman and Hello Kitty in Fortnite" is irresistible for children despite being completely nonsensical.