YouTube's AI moderator pulls Windows 11 workaround videos, calls them dangerous Is installing Windows 11 with a local account or on unsupported hardware harmful or dangerous? YouTube's AI moderation system seems to think so, as it has started pulling videos that show users how to sidestep Microsoft's setup restrictions. Tech YouTuber Rich White, aka CyberCPU Tech, was the first to go public about the …
All my own stuff is on Linux, the best way to switch is to wait until you need a new PC and install Linux on it, if you find you need Windows you'll have to use the crappy old computer. It was a successful motivator for me in February this year and I have not gone back to the dark side.
The underlying problem is that corporations will treat you as poorly as they can if you stubbornly keep returning as a customer.
The underlying problem is a company constantly driven to satisfy shareholder desired growth has reached the point where it lacks the manpower to effectively moderate it's content.
As it's a large company, and the most significant player in it's market, the 'enshitification' is having knock on effects for people. Many of who rely on it for their income.
The best offense is a good defense. The only machine I own with TPM got it turned off in uefi. The other machines all reported they were safe via a block of red text in the update window.
Microsoft wasn't lying when they said win10 was the last windows I was going to install.
If you have something important to say, host it on your own web site and get lots of folks to link back to it (the old way the web worked before Grungle took it over). Relying on third parties with unchallegeable "moderation" will always fail you if you're saying something that might annoy the moguls.
Good idea for sure, go back to publishing things on your own website (these windows bypass info are available on my own web site, for example) but... but if Google and Bing do not index my articles, who will be able to find it? NO ONE.
In the end, Google and MS will always win.
Iirc Peertube also requires you to host your videos yourself either using a VPS or your own PC in background. Unless you have superfast internet (a problem in many second and third world countries) the latter is not practical since you're most likely going to have constrained upload speeds. But I'm certainly not going to buy a VPS subscription (or crawl to Amazon or worse, back to M$ for Azure) just to host my videos...
Oh do give it a rest. This isn't a thread about Linux, much as you (and others) are trying to make it one. Some people choose Windows – that's fine; some people can't choose Linux – that's probably not really fine, but it'd be nice to be able to have a conversation about Windows without someone extremely unhelpful piping up about Linux being the answer.
Sorry but I don’t understand what you are saying.
According to many posts on here, ‘switch to Linux’ apparently fixes every and all issues.
‘I have an old but mission critical application which won’t run on Win 11’; knee-jerk answer; ‘install Linux’!
'I am a hospital administrator and we have an old but working X-Ray machine but it uses Windows 10’ : knee-jerk answer, install Linux!
‘My organisation has a lot of on-premises servers on Windows Server 2012, which is now out of support, what do I do? : knee-jerk answer, install Linux!
Shall I go on?
Now before all the penguinistas, pile on with the downvotes (and I know you will), if I said that I have replaced MS products with Ubuntu at $WORK where appropriate and viable, and similarly at home, will that molify you?
No it won't will it, any hint of ‘just install LIniux’ not being the right answer will be met with downvotes won’t it? And the interesting point is this, are you downvoting because you don't agree and do really do believe that ‘install Linux’ really is the fix to all ills or is it more than you wish it was but don’t like someone pointing it out and making you confront it?
Reality is a real bitch, isn't it?
It is clearly a strawman as no one (unless trolling) would suggest switching to Linux in those circumstances.
The possible exception is the last, but that only if the servers were running cross platform applications (but then they could also upgrade the Windows version so would not ask the question in the first place)
Heh, I didn't suddenly hate M$ when I "switched teams" Hubert. My hatred for the Redmond Rash began years ago and it was due to their switching from providing a relatively stable operating system to a subscription based data suck. And now they're cramming AI into everything. I have always gravitated to privacy on the basis of "what business is it of yours anyway" but M$ has decided that nobody should have the right to privacy, and they should have the right to steal all you have and sell it.
So, I left. Linux allows me to continue on the internet with a reasonable amount of privacy, only sending to the internet what I approve sending. If I'm doing local work on my machine, it remains there. Not so M$, who now brags that they take and send computer snapshots of your data and put it into their cloud "for my protection." No.
Oh and RAA RAA RAA GO PENGIES!
What an advert for your OS of choice you clearly are, using such an overwhelming argument like that. Perhaps you could translate it into l337 sp33k for us old-timers, so we can laugh at you for talking like a skiddie as well.
The merits of Linux vs Windows aside (and any sensible discussion would talk about both the benefits and drawbacks of both, and their applicability in different situations and circumstances), you are getting all those downvotes because the article wasn't in any way about Linux, but you tediously jumped in with a slew of comments about how Linux is better than Windows. You'd have got the same response if you'd decided to post about the benefits of vi over emacs, or the one true brace style, what with those topics being equally irrelevant and divisive. Nobody is interested in the axe you have to grind, take it elsewhere.
not a bad argument. But we can effectively recycle those 10 boxen. I recycled a 10 box the other day.
My main server box was slowly dying. power suppy died, and I swapped in a spare but it was for a PC case, not a baby AT case. NP I sat it on top, then had the foresight to go on e-bay, found a better box to be my new server (3 prior power supplies plus original died in that thing) and ordered it ($140). It had 10 on it, refurbished. No problem, It arrived at a time when old server box was booting every 30 minutes for no apparent reason. slowly dying in other words. [I think it was approaching 20 years old, Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8Ghz]
So arrival of former win10 hardware got a hard drive transplant and with a small amount of re-conf [needed a USB ethernet, which I had on-hand, to connect to i-net router in bridge mode; old box had a PCI ethernet for 2nd connection and this one only has PCIe], but in general was back working in a short time.
Recycling old Win10-nic boxen with FBSD and Linux is doing fine for me. I just need to deal with things like TAX SOFTWARE which IRRITATINGLY DEMANDS "the newest windoze"
Bringing this back, full circle: If I were to make a video about this, would TouTube BAN it???
Not sure what the point is of having an AI based moderation system, backed up by an AI based appeal system. Unless the appeal system is a different/better AI somehow, it is just going to uphold the AI moderation system's takedown.
Probably Google will see his complaints and realize they have to fix something - but that something will be to insert 'sleep(length_of_video_in_seconds + 3600 + random() % 3600)' before making official the denial of the appeal to not make it quite so obvious the appeal process is every bit as automated as the moderation process.
>” Probably Google will see his complaints and realize they have to fix something”
It’s AI all the way down, so the complaint will have been (AI) summarised and (AI) categorised and reduced to a single tick under a broad category of complaint types. Thus I suspect no human actually gets to see the full text of the complaint.
"armed only with a plastic spoon."
A tad better than a chocolate cutlass. ;)
I suppose one could upload one's naughty Windows 11 unsanctioned installation videos to something in the line of redtube under the category "fucking with Microsoft " but in some jurisdictions viewers will need to prove they are 18+ or use a VPN.
Google: less the dragon; more the devil. "Do no evil."
The Newsweek website went to AI moderation last year. It appears to have a list of no-no words that gets longer every day. Sometimes you can't even quote stuff from Newsweek's own article without getting blocked. Often you can get around it by creative spelling (remember the 1001 ways to spell "Viagra", so the ads could get by your spam filter?). But not always. People on both ends of the political spectrum complain, convinced their side is being censored--you generally don't know when someone else's post is blocked, so you think you're the only one. But I've seen enough complaints that I don't think it's politically motivated.
I guess it's like Newspeak, where you (supposedly) can't even think wrong thoughts because you don't have the words for them.
Ohhh, so this is what the "tech channels under threat" videos that I've seen in my feed are about! Haven't got around to watching one yet.
It's stupid, of course - as the article points out, it's not illegal or dangerous to anyone except Microsoft. But it does highlight the dangers of relying on Google for significant income (assuming that the affected channels are monetised).
Over the years, Google has first enriched and then impoverished website owners by changes in the search algorithm, or by randomly closing AdSense accounts. It is no surprise whatsoever that YouTube channels would be equally subject to their capricious whims.
It's not really fair to blame the AI, though. It does what it's trained to do - blame the trainer.
Indeed, blame the trainer - or the person that authorised the use of that mechanism.
Because if it thinks messing with your OS is dangerous, and yet is happy with (e.g.) how many pumpkins can I shoot through, how to generate ridiculous amounts of liquid nitrogen, how to make your car go very very quickly, how to make a pulse jet, or even how to paraglide as being intrinsically safe activities, it seems to have a very confused idea about safety.
>”, it seems to have a very confused idea about safety.”
From your list I suggest the inverse: the higher the Darwin score the greater the need to promote the video. Messing around with installing Windows isn’t particularly dangerous and is wasting time that you could be spending on an activity with a higher Darwin score.
If you want to create a local Windows 11 account during Windows 11 setup, the bypass guide can be found here:
https://gist.github.com/julianxhokaxhiu/bc28c7b257b87c7ffa084e205acbdcd4
The instructions are:
1. Reach the country selection window
2. Press `Shift + F10`
3. Type `net user "User" /add`
4. Type `net localgroup "Administrators" "User" /add`
5. Type `cd OOBE`
6. Type `msoobe && shutdown -r`
7. Enjoy!
OOBE is being deprecated in windows 11 sadly. Microsoft is also trying to break Rufus in later builds so its bypasses won't work anymore.
Microsoft is refusing even government departments to have locally-installed accounts for admin in security related roles.
Recall now quietly turns itself back on without telling you. Task Manager HIDES the recall process if you "turned it off" and simply lies about the CPU and memory being used. The turn off is just a visual trick on the option button.
Recall not only does full keylogging, but will take screenshots and scrapes even from Incognito browers windows and its encryption was cracked by microsoft a LONG time ago, so they have full access to your data.
Microsoft built a $50,000,000,000 (50 billion) US data storage facility JUST for recall for "reasons". Their TCS state they'll "only keep your data as long as necessary" but then goes onto to state that the duration of necessary is "entirely at microsofts discretion and subject to change without notice".
Basically they're trying to force you to have an online account tied to your real life identity and are building a blackmail storage system to use against future presidents, judges, CEOs or anyone that gets in their way.
They won’t hire enough moderators because they need more profit.
And even if they did, they give them the same rules as the AI. Only a handful of people at the very top will have the power to override the system.
Therein lies the problem as more and more of our lives go online: it’s the ultimate bureaucracy. Companies don’t need to have any responsibility any more because they can hide behind AI decisions.
Minimal or no oversight, the drive for ever increasing profits - what can possibly go right?
If only we were just at the level of enshittification. No, we’re going way beyond that into a nightmarish world that is a cross between Brazil and Idiocracy.
Assuming for a minute that this is just Google and just AI doing silly things, then Google will presumably sort this out and video will flow properly again.
However, if this is being done deliberately - through some MS to Google dialogue, then that should send two warnings - one to consumers that we are now living in a Chinese / Russian filtered version of the world, or that Microsoft are absolutely desprate to try and force their view, even when people push back very firmly to say "no thanks" on your latest product and arbitary rules.
The actions in the coming weeks from all involved will help us determine which of the above is true.
I've had friends and colleagues post videos about the dangers of Recall and how Microsoft built a 50billion USD data center to KEEP data for decades since TCs state "we keep data only as long as necessary" but then goes on to state that the duration of necessary "is entirely at Microsoft's discretion and subject to change without notice"
Those videos get erased within minutes by Youtube for random reasons. once for 'inappropriate adult content". the video was just a guy talking about recall and its dangers.
So google and microsoft are basically suppressing anything questioning their AI end goals.
Youtube/Gargle have evidently seen the bad publicity and Rich posted a video today (Sunday) saying the videos have been restored.
The cynical side of me wants to know if this would've happened if it hadn't been covered by such publications as this and also other very popular tech Youtube channels!
I don't see any mentions of software TPM.
I have Windows 11 as a VM with an emulated TPM on Linux on a machine without hardware TPM. Works like a charm, in so far as Windows is some kind of cursed charm.
Maybe someone should release a Linux distro that automagically sets up and runs something like libvirt with swtpm for the poor MS prisoners (financially poor and/or unfortunately shackled to Windows software).
Though there is the older hardware that can't handle VMs or passing hardware to the VM. They should just penguin/BSD it up.
[Insert additional praise of Linux and shite talk of Windows]
Merry Christmas to all and to all read the ****ing manual.
YouTube & Google are known to be doing this for decades. There is no incentive for them to spend time on a proper review and investigation. It is easier, convenient and cheaper to remove videos and even ban / delete entire accounts on the slightest doubt or complaints. Unless there is a legal pressure applied to them by countries this is unlikey to change.
IMHO the answer is: "they control the distribution channel".
That is precisely the same mechanism the entertainment companies had used for years in the era of vinyl, cassette, and VHS.
YouTube has reached that status through at least three intertwined paths that I can think of:
1. Sheer scale makes it the default destination for video content, both for producers and consumers.
2. Sheer scale and the non critical nature of its data also means that their storage costs are are much lower (per unit of storage) than what any other new competitor could afford.
3. Sheer scale and profitability means they can sustain a very decent level of performance that no other platform can currently match (at scale).
So, again IMO, their dominance won't be successfully challenged until a technological change occurs that will destroy their distribution model. I don't know what that could be, but it could involve, for instance, a ×1000 reduction of storage / transmission costs (e.g., hyper efficient local AI hardware that can generate the video on your computer, quickly and cheaply, based on a textual description of the content?)
What I do not know is why Amazon or Microsoft have not decided to compete on that space.
Lastly, note that the above is only applicable in the West. Does not apply to nations that are not technologically dependent on the US at the consumer level.
I've used DOS/Windows since the 80s but windows 11 is a nightmare.
Buggy updates that brick the entire OS forcing a complete clean install.
Broken recovery environment that disables ALL USB keyboards/mice so you can't click options and MUST reinstall OS from scratch.
Damaged control panels/settings windows that either draw white on white text or just crash to a blank screen that Task manager can't close.
Task Manager opening more and more copies of itself continually if you try to use it even ONCE.
Directx 11 and 12 being borked into micro-stuttering for over 6months on millions of systems (co-incidentally with hardware microsoft DOESN'T do deals with)
Breaks linux bootloaders maliciously on Windows updates (I'm sure thats accidental right guys?)
Random issues with USB keyboards/mice disconnecting and having to be rediscovered so Device Manager has HUNDREDS of device drivers loaded over and over again.
And of course the random ever-changing interface.
For AI to flag content requires it to have been trained; that requires deliberate human action to classify certain training materials as “inappropriate”.
Remember, we train and refine our Bayesian email filter (“AI” in today’s parlance) by telling it what is or isn’t spam/junk on a case by case basis. Don’t see any reason why the “AI” being used for YouTube content flagging is any different. Hence in this instance a Google employee deliberately flagged this type of content as “dangerous”.
"This problem, he explained, is more about AI inappropriately flagging content and YouTube not having the manpower to deal with appeals."
That was unduly generous
Surely it should be along the lines of
YouTube choosing* to not employ the manpower to deal with appeals
* despite huge profits
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