I think this is the best take on AI thumbnails

He's not wrong. If I see an AI thumbnail I immediately refuse to watch a video, and I'm definitely not alone in that regard. I'd rather the thumbnail be a still frame from the video rather an AI one.

If you can tell the thumbnail was made by AI it’s objectively not a good thumbnail. Really doesn’t matter how you make the thumbnail as long as it’s good.

Dude who instantly said "fuck no" is a 🐐

why is he actually taking this seriously and doing a good job, then you look at the rest and its an embarrassment to mankind

If I see an AI Thumbnail in the video, I would lose my interest in that video instantly, whether the video is good or not Thumbnails and titles are the first things that makes people click the video, if the video has bad title and thumbnail, or even worse, AI title and thumbnail, people will lose their interest to click the video and scroll

Viewers won't know the thumbnails they're viewing are AI or they won't care. If it gets their attention it gets their attention. Echo chamber moment. Agree with the overall statement though. Know your audience. Maybe for his audience people will care, but basically all the top fitness influencers for example have been rocking AI thumbnails for a while now and it seems like their views have only gone up.

@VTuberNewsDrop Saying not to use AI Thumbnails because the viewer will reject them is a very good way of looking at it if viewer engagement is the only thing keeping you from using AI If it works it works 🙂‍↕️

I remember hearing this advice about not using AI thumbnails before, and I think the reasoning was that most potential viewers attribute it to being low-quality. Like AI thumbnails have that default attribution to them Who is going to watch when the thumbnail is low quality?

I don't think it's nuanced enough because we've all seen ai thumbnails (and videos) that do CRAZY ass numbers so simply saying "it drives away viewers" is not totally accurate. "A few ai thumbnails will succeed out of thousands of slop thumbnails and on top of that, choosing AI thumbnails alienates you from a large section of the internet and no, you won't be the trendsetter that suddenly makes AI popular for those people."

Damn they really liked your tweet huh I checked this a few days ago and it was at a few thousand maybe lol But man, ai thumbnails show that you're not even trying to be creative, so why should i expect anything different in the actual video?

Facts! And 100% agreed

The problem with this take is that people like Nickdigiovanni post videos with completely ai scripts and ai thumbnails and gets millions of views

I tend to agree on the merits of what he's saying, but they aren't being rejected en masse by viewers. Countless channels using them seeing success on YouTube.

lud could have been a great teacher in another life

Lol the guy who said fuck no right after he asked the question

If you like Pokemon sub to the youtube And follow the twitch:

The reason this is the best answer is because he lowkey is saying “if it works then yes”. This is open ended enough for him to use AI in a thumbnail and someone pulls this up and he says “the usage helped with the goal of getting people to click”.

Was so heartbroken when my favorite channel started using AI thumbnails, had to unsub

@ultimajvdeath The fact that he went “mmmh” and nodded his head like he got a life changing revelation is wild to me. Like is that not obvious? Or is it a stupid people opinion that doesn’t think AI is bad

It’s not even necessarily an “I hate AI” principled stand or anything. So much of YouTube has turned into AI bullshit if I see a thumbnail that looks like AI made it I subconsciously assume the video is low effort slop and pass on it.

Unfortunately, that's not true. Asmongold gets tens of millions of views a week, and he always uses AI-slop thumbnails.

My man you went viral!

If you fan me out at the next regional I won’t take offense 😞🤣

Fan you out???

Basically meaning ignore me but I know you’re too chill for that haha

Man just come up to me lol But also remind me too because im old

You guys are kinda glossing over the fact that if people didnt get upset about it hes saying he would totally use it. The only reason he says you shouldn't it just for personal growth. No mention of artists or the negative parts of ai.

I remember when youtube thumbnails were just a frame in the video itself. Or even when people used the same picture but just updated the number if there were multiple parts or episodes. "Binding of Isaac episode 927" was basically the same as "Binding of Isaac episode 60"

He is right because it's not that viewers won't just not watch your videos but that they will come into it expecting a subpar video because of Ai thumbnail... Like all the Ai slop has Ai thumbnail what's the difference? You want your viewers to be paying attention to sell ads

On bruh I instantly don’t like a video if it’s a ai thumbnail

Deadass I see an ai thumbnail I hit “do not reccomend this channel to me”

When I see ai in the thumbnail I instant click "don’t recommend channel"

Stopped watching so many YouTubers I used to because they started using AI thumbnails

@Tricky_Eileen He’s absolutely right. I work in affiliate marketing. We reject genAI fundamentally if user to cut corners such as graphics so if you’re looking to get sponsored by a reputable brand, don’t use AI.

I mean I think he means obvious ai because so many massive YouTubers use it and it actually helps. Hell even some of his thumbnails have some ai in them

The assumption is viewers can tell which thumbnails are AI generated which they can't. An example would be Mr. Beast thumbnails which looks AI but isn't. So if AI thumbnails reach that level which they already can then they won't be rejected.

mrbeast gets tens of millions of views every video, surely he doesn't use AI thumbnails

Hard agree. I remember dropping a YouTuber i really loved to watch bc he switched completely to ai slop for thumbnails :(

Yup whenever they give me recommendations and they're using AI thumbnail I always immediately choose "not interested" or "don't recommend this channel". Let's normalize this.