Humanity watches approximately 8.3 million years' worth of YouTube videos monthly. Only 0.21% of videos feature ads or sponsorships.

Question 1 of 2 for ChatGPT-4o: Please read the article "How a computer that 'drunk dials' videos is exposing YouTube's secrets" and list all those secrets while also listing anything surprising, controversial or valuable you come across.

ChatGPT-4o’s answer:
YouTube’s Secrets Revealed by the ‘Drunk Dialing’ Computer:

1. YouTube’s True Scale and Activity

• Massive Video Archive: Estimated 14.8 billion videos by mid-2024, up from 9 billion in 2022—a 60% increase.

• Viewing Time: Humanity watches approximately 8.3 million years' worth of videos monthly.

• Short Video Dominance: The median video length is 64 seconds, with over a third under 33 seconds.

2. Content Visibility and Engagement Reality

• Unwatched Videos: 4% of videos have never been viewed, and 74% have zero comments.

• Low Engagement: 89% have no likes, and the median view count is just 41.

• Poor Production Quality: More than half have shaky camera work, and 85% have inconsistent sound quality.

3. Limited Monetization on the Platform

• Monetization Scarcity: Only 0.21% of videos feature ads or sponsorships.

• Lack of Marketing Behavior: Less than 4% include calls to action like "like, comment, and subscribe."

4. Language Diversity

• Multilingual Content: English is the dominant language but represents less than 30% of total videos, indicating a broad linguistic spectrum.

Surprising, Controversial, and Valuable Findings:

📌 Surprising:

• Most Videos Are Unseen: The vast majority of YouTube content receives minimal attention, contrary to the perception that YouTube is dominated by viral hits.

• Short Video Trend: The platform is shifting heavily toward short-form content.

⚠️ Controversial:

• Secrecy from Google: Despite YouTube’s societal impact, Google withholds basic statistics such as total video count and engagement metrics.

• Discrepancy in YouTube’s Self-Image: YouTube promotes itself as a platform for professional creators, yet most content is amateur and rarely viewed.

💡 Valuable Insights for Public Debate:

• YouTube as Infrastructure: Researchers argue that YouTube functions like a public utility for video storage and dissemination, not just a social platform.

• Transparency Concerns: The lack of publicly available data hampers research into YouTube’s influence on society and information distribution.

Concluding Insight:

This investigation challenges YouTube’s polished narrative and highlights the platform’s opacity. It raises essential questions about transparency, engagement inequality, and whether platforms like YouTube should be treated as critical digital infrastructure.

Question 2 of 2 for ChatGPT-4o: Any suggestions for Google itself or for regulators on the basis of this article?

ChatGPT-4o’s answer:
Suggestions for Google and Regulators Based on the Findings:

📌 For Google (YouTube):

1. Increase Transparency:

   • Publish regular statistics on video count, engagement rates, and content diversity.

   • Provide clearer insights into how the recommendation algorithm impacts content visibility.

2. Promote Content Diversity:

   • Develop tools to spotlight lesser-seen videos and reduce the concentration of views on top creators.

   • Implement initiatives to promote multilingual and underrepresented content.

3. Improve User Experience and Creator Support:

   • Provide feedback tools to help creators understand why their videos perform poorly.

   • Offer resources to enhance video quality for amateur creators, such as built-in editing tutorials or automated quality assessments.

4. Tighten Algorithmic Accountability:

   • Disclose more details about how recommendations are made, especially concerning sensitive topics such as political content and misinformation.

   • Offer an “algorithmic transparency dashboard” where users can see why they received certain recommendations.

⚖️ For Regulators:

1. Mandate Platform Transparency:

   • Require platforms like YouTube to publish key operational metrics, such as engagement distributions and algorithmic impact assessments.

   • Establish legal obligations for platforms to release anonymized data sets for academic research.

2. Classify Large Platforms as Public Infrastructure:

   • Recognize YouTube’s societal role and impose standards akin to public broadcasters (e.g., accessibility standards, public-interest programming quotas).

3. Enforce Algorithmic Oversight:

   • Conduct independent audits of YouTube’s recommendation algorithms to assess their impact on user behavior, especially regarding radicalization or misinformation.

4. Address Monopolistic Practices:

   • Review Google’s practices for potential anti-competitive behavior, especially how the platform privileges its own services (e.g., YouTube Shorts over TikTok).

5. Protect User Rights:

   • Implement digital rights legislation ensuring users can understand, appeal, and control algorithmic decisions.

💡 Strategic Outcome:

• These measures would help bridge the gap between YouTube’s public-facing image and the reality of its platform dynamics.

• They would foster a healthier content ecosystem and empower both creators and audiences while enabling more responsible platform governance.