YouTube’s non-solution for AI podcasts

This is hot pod, The edge’Newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Register here for more.

Today we take a look at how YouTube’s new ai rules will (and won’t) affect podcasting, another late-night host leaving audio TV, and a bunch of his podcast recommendations covering the war between Israel and Hamas.

This morning, YouTube released new terms regarding ai-generated content on its platform. like me Edge As colleagues Mia Sato and Nilay Patel reported, the company is creating a two-tier system in how it moderates such content: a strict set of rules for music and a looser, almost unenforceable standard for everything else (including podcasts). For creators who create podcasts using ai and people who may discover an ai-generated clone of their voice on the internet, there are very slight new rules they must abide by.

First, podcasts that use “realistic” ai-generated (or altered) content have to label their videos as such. That’s something that’s already happening with some of the biggest podcasts using ai, like with Joe Rogan’s ai Experience, but it’s generally good practice, so it doesn’t hurt to require people to do it. However, even with labeling, people can ask YouTube to remove videos that “simulate an identifiable individual, including his or her face or voice.” It’s then up to YouTube’s discretion, depending on factors such as whether the content counts as satire or whether the person being replicated is a public figure. Meanwhile, music has no such exceptions because YouTube needs to keep the labels happy (if you can believe it, the podcast lobby is somewhat less influential).

These guidelines, which will be implemented next year, are issued in the absence of a real legal framework to deal with ai-generated content. While it seems like YouTube’s attempt to do somethingits effectiveness is necessarily limited and lack of clarity could lead to confusing and inconsistent implementation decisions.

“It doesn’t have the weight of law and it doesn’t have the benefit of being done openly,” says attorney Emily Poler, who handles copyright infringement cases. “There will be situations where it will be really difficult (for YouTube) to make a principled decision, and those (decisions) will be entrusted to some reasonably low-level YouTube employee. “I don’t think that’s a recipe for success.”

Moderation was already a disaster for these platforms before ai got involved, and each is taking a different approach. While Spotify is pretty permissive (and even encouraging!) of ai-spoken content, Audible has a general rule against ai-narrated audiobooks. YouTube seems to be trying to reach a middle ground. I’ll be curious to see how it plays out when the new ai rules come into effect. As always, if you see something strange, call me.

Last year at Hot Pod Summit LA, we held a panel with Team Coco based on the premise that as late-night shows lose relevance, their hosts (like Conan O’Brien) will turn to podcasts. Trevor Noah has since left The daily show and reached a deal with Spotify, and James Corden left The last late show and will soon launch a show with SiriusXM. Now, another former late-night host has a podcast deal: Daniel Tosh.

tosh show Interestingly, iHeartMedia is not a celebrity talk show, which makes sense! Tosh.0 was a hit in its time for being the opposite of standard late-night fare, tapping into vulgar YouTube culture rather than featuring fluffy interviews with the rich and famous. If you’re too young to remember or too old to care, it was a big deal between 2009 and 2012. (Sidebar, I was very surprised to learn that Tosh.0 It didn’t end until 2020). Since silly internet videos don’t exactly translate to podcasting, Tosh’s first interview is with his wife’s gynecologist. I respect!

Who of the night will be next? My money is on Jon Stewart, whose Apple TV Plus show was canceled last month. The podcast always outperformed the show, and it would be relatively easy to continue without Apple’s support.

You have to love how hot pod The audience is always armed with recommendations. Following my open call for suggestions, several of you contacted me with programs that address this extremely complicated conflict with nuance. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to some of them and come back to some that I haven’t heard in a long time. Check it out:

• The Ezra Klein Show, by think again host Jason Gots (and the Vox staff and several members of my family). It’s a top choice for a reason: Klein has dedicated several episodes of his show to exploring the conflict from different perspectives, including a standout episode in which he speaks with pollster Amaney Jamal, who conducted a public opinion poll in Gaza the week before the attack. Spoiler: Gazans don’t like Hamas.
• History of Israel, as recommended by Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro. Maybe you remember History of Israel which is basically Israeli This American life when it was presented in radio laboratory in 2015. In the weeks since the war began, History of Israel Has published two dozen accounts of Israelis about how the conflict has affected their lives.
• In the nose and Unstable are recommended by audio producer Sam J. Leeds. In the nose It is a progressive exit Jewish currents and has been covering anti-war activism on the left in Israel and the United States. Restless – Sponsored by the Institute for Nonprofit News and started by activists involved in IfNotNow, it regularly features stories from Palestinians and publishes an episode last week about the escalation of violence in the West Bank since the war began.
• Ungodly: two Jews in the newsAccording to Sandra Shmueli, development editor at The Economist. It is hosted by Keshet 12 news anchor Yonit Levi and The Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland. So far, this is my favorite of the bunch; I especially enjoyed your most recent episode with Kara Swisher about how war discourse is developing on TikTok.

Keep the recs coming! Especially if you know large groups produced from a Palestinian perspective.

That is all for now. I’ll be back next week with the latest audio news.