AI generated thumbnails on YouTube

[LazyPooky]

So there is this option to let YouTube create a thumbnail for you with AI - based on the title and content of you video. I did that for one LazyTown Episode (Little Sportacus) and it just happens to be my style of thumbnail making that I did more than 6 years ago, in January 2020, for my LazyTown videos on my YT channel. I know my created thumbnails were used on IMDB too so it's a possibility that AI took them from there. But not very original.



AI thumbnail (2026)


My thumbnail (2020)

[chuft]

LOL all AI is based on theft but that's pretty egregious.

[possessor]

So there is this option to let YouTube create a thumbnail for you with AI

just yuck

[BRBFBI]

I've been seeing similar AI thumbnails in Bado Innos's videos, but I didn't realize the generator was built into YouTube.

[Fairy-Possum]

I've been seeing this everywhere. I like to watch Elder Scrolls/Fallout stuff and so much of it has AI generated thumbnails, especially reuploaded streams. I avoid it like the bubonic plague but so few channels don't use AI that I've been left with a handful of channels that I rewatch over and over again. It's the same with LazyTown content. Although something I've noticed is that a lot of editing softwares have forced AI. So I wonder how many channels use that, but not AI thumbnails.

[LazyPooky]

What I find annoying is that the first snapshot thumbnail that YT is creating from an uploaded video is not a standard frame but it's probably using AI too to find the "best" one. Obviously it's focusing on a smiling face or whatever AI thinks it's a smiling face - showing teeth - although there is no exaggerated smiling in the episodes, and mostly close-up.

[BRBFBI]

What I find annoying is that the first snapshot thumbnail that YT is creating from an uploaded video is not a standard frame but it's probably using AI too to find the "best" one. Obviously it's focusing on a smiling face or whatever AI thinks it's a smiling face - showing teeth - although there is no exaggerated smiling in the episodes, and mostly close-up.

That's interesting. That seems like a helpful feature until you realize that it's equally helpful to everyone uploading a video. Someone who has nothing literary or artistic to say and is instead low-effort click farming can easily have nice and clean looking thumbnails too. It will be harder to distinguish quality content, at least based on thumbnails.

I guess that's like AI writing emails for people. It makes it harder to infer someone's level of education or how much effort they're putting into that particular conversation. AI is a leveler that makes it harder to quickly discern low quality content.

Maybe artists who want to distinguish themselves will be pushed to be more punk: picking weird or counterculture things that AI would never choose.

[boredjedi]

That's interesting. That seems like a helpful feature until you realize that it's equally helpful to everyone uploading a video. Someone who has nothing literary or artistic to say and is instead low-effort click farming can easily have nice and clean looking thumbnails too. It will be harder to distinguish quality content, at least based on thumbnails.

The Youtube algorithm (Ai as well) even favors and promotes videos more using the Ai preview image system then if you did the
preview image manually the old fashioned way.

[LazyPooky]

The Youtube algorithm (Ai as well) even favors and promotes videos more using the Ai preview image system then if you did the
preview image manually the old fashioned way.

Yeah well, there is no way to add the AI thumbnail directly to the video so you need to download the image first and upload it to the YT video, just the regular way with self-made thumb images. That way YT can't tell if it's made through the AI system or not. So I wonder if your statement is true, or maybe you talk about something else. I only see a download and copy option in the AI created video thumbnails (see below).

Or perhaps YouTube indirectly favors the videos. Like, more users actually click on the video due to the unusual thumbnail. The algorithm then recognizes it as a popular video and prioritizes it, leading even more users to click on it, and so on.

The thumb images for the Baby Troll episode (season 4) are nicely done with AI, for two of three that is, although I don't like the heavy blurred background because that's not used in the episodes.

AI also ignores Chloe-Steph







Creating thumbnails with YT built-in AI doesn't always work, sometimes you get only text. Not sure what that is.

[chuft]

Yeah well, there is no way to add the AI thumbnail directly to the video so you need to download the image first and upload it to the YT video, just the regular way with self-made thumb images. That way YT can't tell if it's made through the AI system or not. So I wonder if your statement is true, or maybe you talk about something else. I only see a download and copy option in the AI created video thumbnails (see below).

It could be putting a digital watermark in the file that you don't see but its system recognizes as made by AI.

AI also ignores Chloe-Steph

[LazyPooky]

It could be putting a digital watermark in the file that you don't see but its system recognizes as made by AI.

Yes there is a lot of data in the image telling that it's made with AI and made with Google/YouTube Media Processing Services. It's probably that.

[BRBFBI]

Jesus Christ, that thing looks like road kill! Why is the fur dyed red in splotches? It looks like blood. I thought maybe it was an AI hallucination so I skimmed that episode but that seems to be what it actually looks like.

Yeah well, there is no way to add the AI thumbnail directly to the video so you need to download the image first and upload it to the YT video[...]

Now I'm confused. YouTube will generate an AI thumbnail for you but you can't use it without downloading and reuploading it? That makes no sense.

[LazyPooky]

Now I'm confused. YouTube will generate an AI thumbnail for you but you can't use it without downloading and reuploading it? That makes no sense.

I do like it better this way, so you can still edit the picture before using as thumbnail.