From flat-earthers to QAnon to Covid quackery, the video giant is awash in misinformation. Can AI keep the lunatic fringe from going viral?

Mark Sargent saw instantly that his situation had changed for the worse. A voluble, white-haired 52-year-old, Sargent is a flat-earth evangelist who lives on Whidbey Island in Washington state and drives a Chrysler with the vanity plate “ITSFLAT.” But he’s well known around the globe, at least among those who don’t believe they are living on one. That’s thanks to YouTube, which was the on-ramp both to his flat-earth ideas and to his subsequent international stardom.

… Crucial to his success, he says, was YouTube’s recommendation system. …For four years, Sargent’s flat-earth videos got a steady stream of traffic from YouTube’s algorithms. Then, in January 2019, the flow of new viewers suddenly slowed to a trickle. Read More