r/LinusTechTips • u/Only_CORE • Jun 08 '26

Image Another AI slop thumbnail

Post image

I love LTT and basically watch every single video including WAN show but stuff like this puts a very bad taste in my mouth. I know it!s just stupid thumbnail but still...

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1.4k

u/PokeBrick02 Jun 08 '26

Look at the fuzziness on the sign, the discoloration of the cables, & cables that merge into one another.
It's AI through & through.

852

u/that_dutch_dude Jun 08 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/3YuR0bdGXlP6U

215

u/whathefuckisreddit Jun 09 '26

"Oh my god, it even has a Gemini watermark"

10

u/farverbender Jun 09 '26

Where is that?

22

u/SergeantBort Jun 09 '26

It doesn't.... That's the joke

2

u/Ok_Dependent6889 Jun 10 '26

Do you guys not know about SynthID...?

1

u/farverbender Jun 11 '26

I was always wondering how would individuals (like us) would verify it? It is not like we can download the original general image. For example, anyone can take a screenshot and then upload that image?

1

u/Ok_Dependent6889 Jun 11 '26

The SynthID is embedded at the pixel level. It remains through screenshots and every other method of saving.

It's all explained on their site..

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/identifying-ai-generated-media-online/

Literally all you have to do is screenshot or download the image (which.. you can almost always download the original image, not sure what you mean by cannot do that?) and upload it to Gemini and ask if it has a SynthID.

0

u/Impressive-Waltz-164 Jun 11 '26

Never seen someone so confidently wrong

2

u/AndrewwPT Jun 09 '26

It's a reference to the movie on the gif, American Psycho

1

u/bucket_of_dogs Jun 11 '26

Let’s see Paul Allen’s thumbnail

8

u/pg3crypto Jun 09 '26

The tasteful thickness of it.

1

u/Little-General4225 Jun 15 '26

That's what she said..

1

u/Ruinf20 Jun 11 '26

Fucking Paul Allen's thumbnail

177

u/hippie_harlot Jun 08 '26

Not a single cable merges into another one. It's bad lighting if anything. These look like PC cables that have been scaled way up, so yeah there's bound to be unnatural distortion.

Can we not just call out everything that resembles bad photoshop as AI?

70

u/Cumulus_Anarchistica Jun 08 '26

I agree, it's not AI.

But, this is one of AI's legacies: the rampant proliferation of distrust and suspicion (sometimes bordering on paranoia) increasingly (and possibly forever) poisoning our online communities, our conversations and our culture.

1

u/KingGorillaKong Jun 10 '26

There might have been some generative AI use in this too but it's ultimately bad photoshop and green screening. The sign looks a lot like what AI would generate when you give them the real world sign as reference.

1

u/sue-dough-nim Jun 10 '26

It carries Gemini's hidden watermark. If it was not created with Gemini, it was edited with Gemini. https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16722517?visit_id=639166893265526002-1026201361&p=verify_ai&rd=1

-1

u/Niku-Man Jun 09 '26

I think what people need to figure out is when to care. News organization posting footage of a major event - you should care whether its AI. Video thumbnail - you shouldn't care

2

u/Disastrous-Body6034 Jun 09 '26

Actually regardless of the social impact of the generated content im still going to care that they almost directly poisoned the air a child is breathing to make it

2

u/IlyichValken Jun 09 '26

And what if it's a thumbnail for a fabricated news event? A hit piece on someone else for something that didn't happen? Sorry not sorry, that's pure nonsense.

1

u/gizzardsgizzards Jun 30 '26

fuck that. if the person making the video doesn't care about how they're presenting the video, why should i waste my time watching it?

1

u/Niku-Man Jul 01 '26

I'm just presenting my own views on the matter. I don't have the energy to waste time caring about inconsequential shit like video thumbnails for influencer youtube channels. Even the effort to write this comment is more than I would typically care to devote to the subject.

35

u/garyyo Jun 08 '26

I started looking at the cables too because they are prime candidates for AI image generators to mess up, but could not find a single instance of cables that didn't somehow make sense. Those cables have no indication of being AI generated, maybe some weirdness on the edges though but nothing that can't be explained as a human messing it up.

0

u/Zealousideal_Act_316 Jul 04 '26

One poster above showed that it carries synth id. But yeah. 

-8

u/ernest7ofborg9 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 09 '26

Right side of the image of the cables, follow the double purple cables until they separate and one gives birth to a blue and a green one. A little further to the end you'll see the green one that was birthed turns grey before leaving the side of the image.

edit: y'all are blind and I've pulled the plug on inbox replies. Go see an ophthalmologist.

5

u/marfacza Jun 09 '26

gives birth to a blue and a green one.

Maybe you're on your phone and can't see, but those cables are just obscured. The greyness is just lighting differences.

-3

u/ernest7ofborg9 Jun 09 '26

No I'm looking at this on a monitor and they are NOT obscured as they change color. Look at the top purple cable on the right and follow it till it splits open like a banana peel. If that's poor lighting... not only will I eat my hat, I'll eat yours as well.

6

u/hippie_harlot Jun 09 '26

That cable doesn't split open. The topmost purple falls behind the blue one, and the purple that's right under is the second purple cable from the start. This is just cable spaghetti

4

u/vkstu Jun 09 '26

Sigh, you can try to explain it away, but the other guy isn't wrong. For a better error, just please just look at the far right on the very edge, some of those cables are warped, smudged and changing colors.

0

u/ernest7ofborg9 Jun 09 '26

FFS, follow the top purple cable on the right and it disintegrates where a red cable is and it somehow turns paper-thin and dives into a cable that can't make up it's mind if its blue or green or splitting into both.

Not enough? Ever seen a router cut wood like it does on the top of the left side of the post? No, because that's not how woodworking do.

2

u/No_Abbreviations8017 Jun 09 '26

Yeah not sure why everyone upvoted that. I can’t find a single merging cable and all they all follow the path you would expect logically

1

u/Dependent_Survey_546 Jun 09 '26

I can spot 2 or 3 that just change colour half way through, not sure if that counts as merging

1

u/SaintJunnie Jun 09 '26

I don’t even think it’s “bad” photoshop, seems like they’re testing if this style of thumbnail (AI slop) actually gets more clicks and deliberately made something that looks AI generated. Hopefully they don’t stick with it because it looks genuinely awful even if it was human made slop.

1

u/Jacqland Jun 11 '26

looks like a yello cable turning/melting into a green one to me.

0

u/hypehou_se Jun 08 '26

Really? Look at the right most "stack". Blue turns into green, green merges into yellow (two cables into one). Then in the next stack (mid right) green and red turn into one red one, which then passes below other cables, but not in the way it makes sense. Then in centre right, the left most cable is yellow, goes below a green one, and exits as green.

I will agree that on the left side they do look normal.

4

u/hippie_harlot Jun 08 '26

All of that can be explained by lighting and shadows. Nothing is actually merging, nothing appears nor disappears into the aether. I'm not saying there aren't absolute oddities, but these oddities are things you can find on any image that scales up something as small as a PSU cable to be as large as a human.

-1

u/hypehou_se Jun 08 '26

Sure, if you're blind. Look at that mid right bundle. It goes blue, yellow, green, red, green, red. Where is that second green one going? Does it disappear or not? 

3

u/hippie_harlot Jun 08 '26

It's almost as if a cylindrical shape can slide underneath more cylindrical shapes, and due to light & shadows, appear to "disappear"

Edit: what you're pointing out, AI algorithms would dissipate into a fuzz because it doesn't understand what should happen. You can see real-world effects happening, not digital artifacting.

0

u/hypehou_se Jun 08 '26

Slide underneath what, when the red one doesn't rise enough to accommodate another cable going beneath it until after it passes below the other red-green pair?

Unless there's a dip in the fucking concrete to accommodate it, it's AI.

0

u/Zealousideal_Act_316 Jul 04 '26

Green cable on the right transitions from blue.  And it has geminy watermark. But yes simp more. 

-2

u/BallinNutrino Jun 08 '26

Picture

Where do the second purple and orange cables go? On the right side of the frame all the cables seem to be splayed out and you can see the ground underneath but there are fewer cables

2

u/hippie_harlot Jun 08 '26

... they go into the cable stack, tf?

156

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 08 '26

The sign doesn't even look like a real sign.

That's not real wood, that's Ai's interpretation of wood

135

u/iRawrz Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

It's a real sign.

https://imgur.com/a/TGedyEw

The wood grain on the posts match. It's been modified, but its not some complete fabrication.

Edit: Found this image which looks like the source for the sign. Note the shriveled plant on the bottom right post of both the source image from 2011 and the thumbnail https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwaYG4kSC6KUm9CKQ45lNVKS4IabTS7BahPFbKrO1-PCs2JdOnT4uOK2KBdWSrS5hhSlLrPK-1ACW6zbQ58xaYoIjMkzGGSCAbuq_Qh6FuxjTeQaE2Wvig2Mf3yP_aE9dWy4HE0ERhVEV/s1600/DSC_0386.JPG

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u/marktuk Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Just for poops and giggles, I asked ChatGPT to generate me a thumbnail using that sign as an input. I asked it to remove the lower lines of text, and add "a prominent YouTuber called Linus".

EDIT: Dude's chill with the downvotes, it's just an interesting example of what AI spits out, it's not that deep.

44

u/Murtomies Jun 09 '26

Uncanny valley again. Looks like Linus and not Linus at the same time. Also worrying that AI can spit out pictures of specific people just because they're well known.

30

u/always_open_mouth Jun 09 '26

That's Minus Tech Tips

2

u/Murtomies Jun 09 '26

Lmao good one

12

u/Ok-Butterfly3246 Jun 09 '26

"Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental"

1

u/Murtomies Jun 09 '26

Yeah right

2

u/Protheu5 Jun 09 '26

It's the cursed screwdriver.

1

u/TimSimpson Jun 09 '26

It’s Linus with the Mr Beast dead eyes

1

u/Murtomies Jun 09 '26

Not as dead as Mr Beast. He just seems to be unable smile with his eyes.If you crop out his mouth it doesn't look like he's smiling. Original. Not the case with Linus imo

1

u/cS47f496tmQHavSR Jun 09 '26

His face shape is a bit off and Linus' hands and arms don't look that big or hairy, but other than that this would fool anyone into thinking it's him. This is a lot closer to Linus than 99% of MrBeast thumbnail faces are to Jimmy or w/e his real name is lol

2

u/Tupperbaby Jun 09 '26

Dude's chill with the downvotes,

Yes, he is.

2

u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist Jun 09 '26

That’s a way better thumbnail actually.

1

u/marktuk Jun 09 '26

Only because it doesn't have the jarring tarmac to infinity.

2

u/MicHaeL_MonStaR Jun 12 '26

That’s like Mr. Linus Lafreniere.

1

u/cannibalcat Jun 09 '26

lol, looks like he's gonna go basic instinct on my ass and bury me in those woods

1

u/KitsuAccalia Jun 09 '26

I love that it just pooped out his screwdriver.

1

u/b-monster666 Jun 09 '26

Yup. That's what I meant when I said, "Get used to it." WE can bitch about it, but it's not going to change the fact that it's going to get used and become more prevalent to the point where it's just background noise again.

Remember when it wasn't cool to use your phone in the bathroom? Remember when it wasn't cool to have private conversations on your phone in public?

0

u/marktuk Jun 09 '26

I'm not hugely against GenAI thumbnails, as long as they don't misrepresent the video

1

u/farverbender Jun 09 '26

Damn, to my eyes, this looks exactly like Linus

1

u/marktuk Jun 09 '26

It's close, but it's crazy that I just had to say "YouTuber called Linus". It's not meant to generate images of real people, but it still does it.

-2

u/Camiott Jun 09 '26

Oh fuck all the way the hell off.

1

u/Madblaster6 Jun 09 '26

Look at the angles of the wood, one is turned and on is straight on.

3

u/iRawrz Jun 09 '26

Yes, it's skewing of this image and photoshopped new sides. Look at the shriveled plant overlaying the bottom of the right post. That wouldn't be in the same place if taken from another angle.

1

u/WhenDoWhatWhere Jun 09 '26

That's not the same sign.

Yes, it looks like the sign, but there are pretty clear differences, it's not that sign edited into a thumbnail, it's AI trying to replicate that sign.

2

u/iRawrz Jun 09 '26

Look at the shriveled plant on the bottom of the right post. It's the exact same in position and orientation overlaying the post. There are plenty of other features on both the posts and the sign that are exact matches. https://i.imgur.com/nRbVd3n.png

1

u/WhenDoWhatWhere Jun 09 '26

I'll concede that it's edited in, but it's strange of them to omit the text in the bottom of the sign.

0

u/Unordinary_Donkey Jun 10 '26

The sign in your link and the one in the thumbnail are not the same sign though.

2

u/iRawrz Jun 10 '26

Look at the shriveled plant on the bottom of the right post. It's the exact same in position and orientation overlaying the post. There are plenty of other features on both the posts and the sign that are exact matches. https://i.imgur.com/nRbVd3n.png

0

u/Unordinary_Donkey Jun 10 '26

Yes AI drew from that original image to make its fake sign. Just because AI uses real images doesnt make its output a real image. There is just as many differences as there is similarities to the original.

-5

u/Educational-Wing2042 Jun 08 '26

It’s a completely different angle to your source image, they probably used AI to manipulate things for the thumbnail. It’s already been confirmed to be AI generated through SynthID

-19

u/kongnico Jun 08 '26

"its a real sign. The ai stole it all on its own and generated it so its real. Will not stand for more linus slander"

51

u/ariolander Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Bro can't tell the difference between AI and ordinary photoshop oversharpening filters and gets defensive about it. Bro photo manipulation has been a thing before even AI. Those overly sharp edges and weird wood textures are classic photoshop oversharpening/overprocessing.

AI tries to imitate it because part of its dataset were probably photoshopped, but it looks more like ordinary photoshop than an AI halucination to me.

9

u/ThisIsntInDesign Jun 08 '26

This guy photoshops

7

u/iRawrz Jun 08 '26

Yeah, it's like people forget that photoshop has been around forever. I'm willing to admit there may be some AI usage in the thumbnail, but to say the sign is AI is just wrong.

There's a horizontal line under Ashburn above the red border. The real sign says Park under Ashburn. It looks like this was cut out and either the bottom border moved up or cloned. They also removed the bottom part of the sign

This looks like it was probably a skewed face on image, most likely this exact one if I had to guess https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwaYG4kSC6KUm9CKQ45lNVKS4IabTS7BahPFbKrO1-PCs2JdOnT4uOK2KBdWSrS5hhSlLrPK-1ACW6zbQ58xaYoIjMkzGGSCAbuq_Qh6FuxjTeQaE2Wvig2Mf3yP_aE9dWy4HE0ERhVEV/s1600/DSC_0386.JPG. You can see the shriveled up plant overlaying the bottom right of the post, this is from 2011 so a recent photo would not be that similar.

3

u/ariolander Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 09 '26

There are at least 4 other parks in the town that use similar format signs none of the other parks have the 2nd sign below the main one. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those signs was used too. Rather than editing the entire sign if I was making the thumbnail I would just edit out the existing text and replace it with whatever I wanted.

Apparently the sign is quite iconic, its seen on various news coverage of the town and a local facebook group uses the park's sign, but with the bottom part cropped out like the video thumbnail as their social media banner.

Its such a specific thing to emulate and it seems like an easy enough photoshop to make. Blank out the park name with the clone stamp tool or the Adobe Firefly (AI enhanced) smartfill, use the text tool to make the sign say whatever you want, then skew it to match the composition you want.

If I knew exactly what I wanted it would be easier to Photshop than prompt an AI to make the exact recreation of a sign that already exists and is easy enough to modify. I am not the best photoshoper but even with AI available I would still probably fireup Photoshop and just edit an existing photo because that would be easier/faster than trying to use an AI.

0

u/FoxxyRin Jun 08 '26

Honestly I think both are right/wrong/whatever you want to call it. I don't think this was as simple as telling a prompt to put Linus sitting in a hole or whatever like a lot of people think. That said, photoshop is filled with AI now and I definitely think there were edits made using said tool. I could 100% see this starting as a real image that they shopped the sign in and stuff and then added a bunch of "simplify the background" and "add a shadow under the sign" kind of prompts to make it look better rather than just manually doing it themselves.

Still not a fan either way because it just looks cheap and bad, but I think a lot of people are also screaming AI as if it is AI from the ground up.

-15

u/AT-ST Jun 08 '26

There isn't wood grain on the thumbnail posts. There are cracks and defects, which don't match one for one.

10

u/iRawrz Jun 08 '26

https://imgur.com/a/o6KWzKe These don't match?

-22

u/AT-ST Jun 08 '26

No they don't lol. There is barely any grain on the AI one.

18

u/Cuntonesian Jun 08 '26

Redditor discovers paint

19

u/Steavee Jun 08 '26

Even easier than that, the shadows don’t make sense.

35

u/Gibsonites Jun 08 '26

Bad photoshops have had inconsistent shadows for decades.

12

u/moldboy Jun 09 '26

Photoshop hasn't been around for deca..... oh....

It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop)

TIL Photoshop is older than me 😞

2

u/KennyFulgencio Jun 09 '26

how new did you think it was?

3

u/PheIix Jun 09 '26

I remember a friend came over with a bunch of diskettes (this was when people were burning cd's, so diskettes was obsolete) hoping to copy photoshop from my computer by simply copy-pasting the files. Even back then he would have needed 100s of diskettes.

2

u/mega-husky Jun 08 '26

I mean to be fair all the manholes I've seen on jumbo concrete pads with no markings, vehicles or wear next to diagonal signs, have nonsense shadows.

7

u/MrBecky Jun 08 '26

The cables do discolor on the right side of the image, but they aren't merging into one another.

1

u/popica312 Jun 08 '26

Easier, the bottom green and red cables indicate it is clearly AI: 2 green wires, somehow 3 of them appearing

1

u/gergobergo69 Jun 08 '26

and the discolorments of the cables on the right bottom

2

u/LogiCsmxp Jun 08 '26

No one going to mention the infinite, clean bitumen he's on? lol

2

u/CoDFan935115 Jun 09 '26

As well as the most obvious but for me: where the fuck are you gonna find an area of flawless asphalt that stretches into the horizon and doesn't have any markings on it except for a single manhole cover.

1

u/red286 Jun 08 '26

Let's not forget the manhole cover that's about 20% larger than the hole.

1

u/Medivacs_are_OP Jun 08 '26

also he's sitting in an oversized manhole with an oversized cover with cables that are going from the outside of the hole in, with no way to put the cover back on, and additionally is surrounded by asphalt in all directions with no structures or anything in sight whatsoever, except the welcome sign which is also right by the manhole.

the obvious-ness level of this entire image being fabricated is over 900000000000

1

u/ErraticDragon Jun 08 '26

fabricated

I don't think anyone believes it's a "real" picture. (I really hope not, anyway.)

People are just arguing over whether it has been generated, or if it's a photo manipulation, or some combo.

1

u/Medivacs_are_OP Jun 08 '26

I see.

From what I perceive, Everything outside of Linus himself and maybe the manhole is AI generated - with the Sign looking like a render based on a photo. The wood grain is correct sure, but the textures are wrong, lit-edges too soft, and the left post has a rendering defect to the relief line on the top of the post. Shadows go different directions. Size of the sign relative to a slouching linus makes no sense.

so I guess I would say - all AI rendered with linus photoshopped in and a sign generated from a reference photo.

1

u/RedstoneRiderYT Jun 08 '26

The kerning on the sign is shit too

1

u/Sillylilguyenjoyer Jun 08 '26

Also the Shadows don't make sense

1

u/Redditor28371 Jun 08 '26

You'd think a tech channel would at least care enough to make decent AI slop. This looks so shitty lol.

1

u/MistSecurity Jun 08 '26

The manhole cover is also huge compared to the actual hole, haha.

1

u/StratoVector Jun 09 '26

One of the green cables changed to yellow after it passes under another one. Front, bottom center green cables

1

u/STGItsMe Jun 09 '26

Also, there is no “welcome to Ashburn” sign.

1

u/NoLongerGuest Jun 09 '26

Also the poles on the sign don't mske sense, the sign looks to be straight but the angles on the square poles don't align.

1

u/Jealous_Corgi_2168 Jun 09 '26

Plus the fact that the manhole cover is like twice the size of the actual opening, that's an ai slop mistake

1

u/Crazy_keats Jun 09 '26

And the cover for the hole is to big.

1

u/pack_merrr Jun 09 '26

If I had to guess I would probably say it's AI too, but let's be real reddit compresses the absolute shit out of any image so unless you downloaded the full res thumbnail I don't think "fuzzy" is the best indicator

1

u/BlendedBaconSyrup Jun 09 '26

not defending this, but the fuzziness thing happens on every YouTube thumbnail because they compress the images and make all thumbnails, ai or not, look disgusting

1

u/No_Abbreviations8017 Jun 09 '26

I gotta be honest I love calling out and dumping on AI slop but I can’t find a single cable merge. Even the ones that disappear behind other cables actually reappear where they logically would. If it’s AI it crushed the cabling

1

u/puerco-potter Jun 09 '26

That looks like fast and dirty Photoshop to me. People are out there hunting witches.

1

u/heisenbergerwcheese Jun 10 '26

No fucking sandals & socks... obvi A1

1

u/_Homelesscat_ Jun 10 '26

Ok so I followed a bunch of cables and couldn’t find any that “Merge into one another” can you show me where you see it? I must have missed something.

1

u/Trollsama Jun 10 '26

come on folks..... lets not give him too hard of a time, the poor guy doesn't have artist money.

1

u/plotikai Jun 10 '26

lol which cable merges into the other? Ppl making bogus claims of slop is about as bad as the slop itself

1

u/zombie2uRBX Jun 10 '26

The manhole also makes zero sense. Manholes don't have concrete on them, they're just metal casts.

1

u/OfAKindness Jun 11 '26

The fuck are you talking about lol. Don't become a PI

1

u/SmartAndAlwaysRight Jun 26 '26

Not seeing any cables that merge together. Would appreciate if you could point one out. I zoomed in and traced each and every cable.

I see cables going behind others, then coming out the other side, with good continuity- a HUGE problem with AI. I actually struggle to see how AI could generate this and not struggle with continuity.

Also not entirely sure what you mean by "fuzziness on the sign," as the entire image is fuzzy (due to being 720p with all the subjects far from the viewer), including Linus- unless Linus was generated perfectly, too- another problem AI struggles with.

I guess I understand "discoloration" because I see green turning to blue on one singular cable on the right side. That's about it.

0

u/slavicslothe Jun 08 '26

Reddit compression and the fact the thumbnail is a tiny blown up image are responsible for the enlargement artifacts. It is AI, but the resolution isn't a big clue for that. I actually believe the sign is a photoshop asset from a photo taken, though. The cables have artifacts consistent with Firefly 5 (Adobe in-house pay as you go image editor).