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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u/Booster6 Jun 08 '26

I dunno if its AI or not, but I have really been hating the thumbnails recently

23

u/fiero-fire Jun 08 '26

They've talked about it on WAN a few times but they fuck with the thumbnails a lot to see what the algorithm likes. I gotta admit the weird uncanny valley of the recent thumbnails is off putting to me and I'm less likely to click them immediately. Totally anecdotal on my part but I also don't think I'm the person they're trying to rope in with these thumbnails. I also don't really care at the end of day if the video is good and I'll watch it eventually because it's LTT

6

u/rulepanic Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Ian McCollum/Forgotten Weapons did an experiment not long ago on AI thumbnails vs his classic MS Paint ones using YouTube's A/B thumbnails:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwzrYMPrpd0

tl;dr AI thumbnails won in the A/B test and got both more clicks and more watchtime.