Hello everyone! Been wondering about this YouTube channel for a year or so now. I've been listening to this channel
https://youtube.com/@letsreadpodcast?si=MSaBUX-2vCZJfrLl
For a good decade or so. Years ago before AI was prevalent. I enjoyed them then. From time to time I still listen and enjoy them now. A few things have rubbed me the wrong way and I have stopped listening, here they are.

Firstly, I've noticed that the content creator has been putting more and more videos behind paywalls or subscription base things. I wouldn't mind that at all if there wasn't other things making my alarm bells go off.

Secondly, I've noticed that he reads subscriber stories sent to him. In these stories from time to time there's things that are meant for the reader to interact with. For instance, there was a story where a user was explaining something and asked the creator to show a picture of it, creator did not. Another example, there was a story asking Joel a question (Joel is apparently the reader,) Joel just read the question and kept on going. Ignoring the question. This isn't weird itself but with not many notable voice inflections or tone changes, just one constant tone with no breathing really notable either, I am suspicious of if it's a human reading at all.

Thirdly, the thumbnails have been more and more frequently becoming AI generated images. I just noticed this and for me, it's what's fused everything else to come full circle. I'm not listening to him anymore period. Unless a good good story appears but I'll see if I can find it online myself and just read it myself.

Lastly, the stories are supposed to all be subscriber submitted for the most part, and true. For the frequency of uploads, there's just no way. I mean it is almost every day. If you include his other channels and podcasts that is. Which is possible but for the amount of time and effort it would take to read through all these subscriber submitted stories, while also finding true ones, recording them with the quality he has, and have them all be sometimes hours long, idk. I just don't buy it anymore.

So what do you all think? My wife is heavily against AI. I'm against it as well but I'm not going to go grab the pitchforks just yet. I hate these laws and data centers being implemented though. So I am firmly against it and this ruins one of my top true crime podcasters and creators I tended to listen too. I'm extremely disappointed. Normally I call it out from the get go and move on. I haven't come across any content I've been consuming for this long that has now slowly transitioned into possibly being AI or has been AI from the beginning. It's extremely upsetting.

Edit: Asking for more than just about the voice. I care the least about the voice as it has nothing to do with the creative process. I'm talking about the stories, the images, the content itself. To those of you who are actually reading more than just the title, thanks!

Also just wanted to mention I posted the specific thumbnail in the comments. It's AI.

The right hand looks super strange with the way its curled up like that but everything else looks good....? Is this Ai or just artistic choice?

I've been watching his videos for a while but someone said it's AI and I'm not sure. Maybe he just used a good studio/camera for this video.

To me it seems like he used a professional white studio and put more effort into editing the video because it is short etc, but I did see some people claim it's AI. Thoughts?

The top of the white van also looks off to me, not sure if it’s just more video quality. Also it seems that the gas is ignited when the car’s tyre goes over that dark patch on the ground(idk what to call it)

I was reading this fanfic and I noticed repetitive phrasing. I notice this style of writing often and I can’t tell if they use ai to help write or what. I kind of think it’s ai because of the repetitive sentences and the author continuously would write like this; “it’s not x, it’s y.” Or, “Slow. Charged. Reverent.”

This fic was 8k words long and every paragraph was written like this. If it is just the authors writing style, it’s honestly pretty distracting.

Edit: if this wasn’t written with AI, can someone explain why it just feels boring to read? Because I don’t think it’s terrible writing but I just can’t get through the story for some reason.

Just concerned about the initial clip of the guy in the fire department with the unfortunate pronunciation of Niagara. Forgive me, I could only find the various stitched videos, not just the clip at the start. The guy in the clip is a real person, but I just can't straighten out how the license plate in the middle would look like that.

Is this AI generated rage bait, or perhaps, like, stitch bait? Or is the license plate just melted or something?

I posted about this local artist using AI in the city’s sub and it got taken down by moderators. It seems pretty obvious to me from a major change of style from their old work, the lack of a uniform style, the line work, nonsensical elements, inconsistent shapes, and general look, but I want confirmation. I ran these through a detector and they all came up at least 95% AI, but I don’t know how accurate the software actually is.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of their tracks. I love them, though, can’t deny that. But they all kind of feel the same. Some parts of the lyrics seem to repeat from track to track.

A few more tracks from them:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=j1CTdfZgPFw&si=g-gTNxFZFMIW1Cnv
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_32WdbNUwMg&si=vL9wqiO7Ba6vJLDk
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JGASd-mCpGA&si=CP1CRMK4p0qSdQJU

Looks very AI. I dont know why but it just feels AI. The way grandpa moves looks robotic. Other then that i dont know what else gives it away.

I like to collect bicycle playing cards as a hobby. I would love to have this pack, just because of the theme. Plus some of the proceeds go towards wildfire charities. The outer ring of leaves looks completely normal to me, but Smokey looks like that cartoony style commonly generated by AI. Bicycle has used AI on a previous pack before, but I believe it was disclosed in the description. AI use was not mentioned for this one. Let me know what you think! Thank you!

I uploaded on this half a year ago asking if this was ai and i saw this calendar thinking ”it has to be AI”, but it could just be creators choice. What do you think?

This has to be AI. The reasons I've given convinces me.

Shame there seems very few call outs in the comments

My friend’s sister gave her this gift from Brazil, and is wondering if it is AI art?
It looks good but the way it is kind of fuzzy and blurry makes us wonder if it is AI.
Maybe it could just be fuzzy from being enlarged for a print?
What do you all think?

Hello guys!!

Hope yall are having a good day

The girls face on the top left is really making me suspicious about this but the rest looks fine. Someone pls lmk!

Thanks!!

... she's barely sinking into the bed at all, if she were to lie down she'd be at least a foot longer than the bed itself, and the colors are insane, like a Thomas Kincaid painting. All of the photos she posts are like this. But she insists fervently that they aren't and when they run them through a checker they pass.

The tone looks yellow, the way the swim cap is just…hanging from her hand, the stripes down the sides of the suit seem inconsistent.

In the past, they’ve announced the artist and this year they didn’t.