NOT that anyone cares what i think but one thing that is interesting to me about the hank green ai scandal is that knitters knew someone at scishow was using generative ai almost a year ago and, from what i can tell, they were resoundingly ignored or dismissed as overreacting. i knew about it because i'm subscribed to a lot of fiber artists on youtube including jillianeve's main channel, so the algorithm placed this video in front of my eyeballs back in september:
it's a really good video! and it's hardly the only one of its kind. as soon as i watched it, i got about 10 more recommended to me, all from knitters who could tell scishow's knitting video was 1) wrong as hell 2) likely based on genai "research" 3) implicitly misogynistic in its usage of genai and by extension its dismissal of knitting as a science worthy of intentional, human research, and 4) overtly misogynistic in how the script of the episode itself discussed knitting.
(side note: the original scishow video has been taken down, but here's a reaction video from a scientist/knitter that contains the scishow video in its odious entirety! it's way worse than i thought it would be!)
and yeah the video was taken down, and yeah hank issued a half-hearted apology and then followed it up with a video about how he has since learned that knitting is great actually. but then he went on to apparently spend the bulk of that video praising weaving, which is both a different fucking thing, and traditionally a male profession.
you could say that the reason that the backlash to the knitting video didn't make much of a splash outside of the fiber arts community is just because of scishow's reputation for accurate science compounded with the good will that hank green has personally built. and i think that's true, but i also think that the ways in which fiber arts and knitting in particular are dismissed as "grandma hobbies" is a huge part of that. i think that the very misogyny that devalues knitting and other fiber arts, that played such a predominant role in scishow's video on it, is what helped to keep this under wraps as long as it did.
i fully believe that if the chatgpt'd video in september 2025 had been about the history of world war ii or automobiles or other interests that are not gendered as silly little lady diversions, this spotlight/intervention on his genai use would've happened in september 2025. but instead hank green, who has a massive, science-minded following, has spent the intervening time making wishy-washy videos about how complex the issue of genai usage is. and if youtube's algorithm has caught onto the fact that you have concerns about genai and have watched scishow or hank green content in the past, you have probably seen one such wishy-washy video! like this one here, where he uses weasel words to explain why actually corn production has a way worse impact on our finite potable water supply than data centers!
i'm not saying that the facts shared in the video aren't true. what i am saying is that there is maybe some personal motivation behind the making of it. if this and videos like it are perhaps fueled by a desire to justify one's own behaviors, it is playing out in front of an audience of millions and millions of people. so you really cannot compare it to an individual struggling with ai addiction. this is someone with a platform built specifically on science, learning, accuracy, and skepticism, and they are using that platform to downplay the impact of genai.
the cocoon of reassurance and forgiveness that i have seen spring up around hank green.... gives me some pause. particularly given that he has not said he is going to quit using genai. i've seen a lot of posts on how the Lesson here is that genai addiction can happen to anyone no matter how smart you may think you are. i've seen a lot of individuals saying how it reminds them of their own struggle with genai addiction. i don't think that's an accurate comparison. i feel like we are more in the territory of, like, a youtuber who built their entire brand on combating gambling addiction getting a sponsorship with a gacha game and going on to say how this one is way less addictive than other gacha games, guys, trust me!
shame isn't a useful motivator to help someone break out of addiction. i have a lot of compassion for individuals dealing with genai addiction, and a lot of empathy as someone who discovered the hard way that i cannot play gacha games without succumbing to patterns of gambling addiction! i hope hank green the individual gets better or whatever, if indeed he decides to quit using chatgpt, but i don't think i can ever forgive such a profound misuse of his platform. and i honestly don't think anyone else should, either! i think if there is a Lesson here, it is one of parasociality, and a willingness to trust Friendly Internet Guy That I Like over experts on a topic. especially if that topic is one that is devalued for its gendered connotations.
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