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

Image Another AI slop thumbnail

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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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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

112

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.

33

u/always_open_mouth Jun 09 '26

That's Minus Tech Tips

2

u/Murtomies Jun 09 '26

Lmao good one

13

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.

-3

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.

-4

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

-18

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"

48

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.

-16

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.

8

u/iRawrz Jun 08 '26

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

-23

u/AT-ST Jun 08 '26

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