A YouTuber secretly replaced himself with AI for a month, and shockingly, none of his viewers noticed the change.
Recently, a YouTuber named Sambucha replaced himself with artificial intelligence (AI) for an entire month, and his audience did not notice.
This bold move sparked discussions about the capabilities of AI and how closely it can mimic human behavior.
YouTuber secretly lets AI ‘take over’ his channel for a month without being noticed
Sambuca, who has around nine million subscribers, wanted to test how much he could use AI without his audience realizing it.
He called this project a “litmus test” to see if viewers would catch on to the changes he was making.
His goal was to create content that felt the same as his usual videos.
“It’s basically gonna be a litmus test for how much we can get away with until my audience notices that I’m replacing myself with AI,” he explained.
Youtuber started the experiment by using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate ideas for his videos.
This AI tool helped him come up with short video concepts that aligned with his typical fun and educational style.
For example, one of the ideas he created was about “The Most Rigged Game in the World.”
He filmed this idea without changing the rest of the video’s format.
“[I will] put it into the hands of basically a single person to see if they’ll call out that the thumbnail on one of these videos is going to be AI-generated,” he described.
Small changes can lead to significant impacts.
Initially, Sambuca made minor adjustments, which went unnoticed by his audience.
The comments on his videos showed no signs of suspicion. Encouraged by this, he decided to take the experiment further.
He picked an older video that had received little attention and changed its thumbnail to an AI-generated image. Still, no one commented on the change.
Next, he used AI to create a full voiceover for another YouTube Short. He selected a voice from Character.AI that sounded most like his own.
“Not only are we going to have an AI voice say that line but it’s also going to be an AI-generated avatar of me,” he said.
Surprisingly, he found that out of 1,200 comments, no one mentioned anything about the AI voice.
This lack of awareness surprised Sambuca, as he had expected at least some viewers to notice the difference.
Incorporating more AI elements enhanced content.
As the experiment progressed, Sambuca combined an AI-generated voice with an AI avatar that resembled him.
He tested this new setup with a friend on Discord.
His friend noticed that the avatar lacked blinking and had a slightly robotic tone, but still, no major red flags were raised among his audience.
In a later video, he included an obviously AI-generated segment.
Although it was clear that the voice did not sync perfectly with the avatar’s mouth movements, most viewers missed this detail.
Only a few comments mentioned the oddity, with one saying, “Bro is not slick with the A.I.”
Social media reactions
After revealing his experiment, Sambuca was astonished by the reactions from his viewers.
Many expressed disbelief that they had missed all the signs of AI integration.
One user said: Being a subscriber doesn’t necessarily mean one watches everything, nobody has that much time to waste
The second user added: The average IQ is at an all time low no doubt …….
The third user wrote: it says much about his content quality
another user joked: This poster replaced himself with AI we suddenly noticed
Someone said: Says more about his content than AI tbh
AI advancements raise questions about authenticity.
Sambuca’s experiment sheds light on the rapid advancements in AI technology.
It demonstrates how AI can create content that closely resembles human output.
As AI becomes more integrated into various fields, including entertainment, it raises questions about authenticity and originality.
The experiment also highlights how creators can use AI tools to enhance their content.
However, it also prompts discussions about the boundaries between human creativity and machine-generated work.