There is little doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is on a steep rise in the world of communication.
AI has already become a useful crutch for many people who struggle with the written word or video creation, but AI still has flaws and will need to up its game in a big way to become the perfect go-to mechanism for most users.
Jim Sutherland
We at MyStarCollectorCar will continue to do our own heavy lifting as we march toward 15,000 articles-all of them written by human beings. The main reason is we still love writing our own stuff after 17 years of MyStarCollectorCar, along with countless other non-automotive newspaper articles dating back to the mid-1980s.
The old car hobby is never dull and allows us to immerse ourselves in it every day of the week in one form or another. We prefer direct contact via vintage vehicle shows or related events with other car guys, but the winter months also allow us to dive deep into the world of the internet in search of car stuff.
One of our favorite venues is YouTube because of its huge library of programs dedicated to automotive-related topics. Most of the programs are hosted by actual car guys and showcase their real interests in the car hobby.
The hosts are front and center in every episode and have varying levels of skills in front of a camera. Most of them are not naturally entertaining but they try hard and are flesh-and-blood human beings who deliver their message from the perspective of a dedicated car guy.
Unfortunately, the YouTube channels also have non-car guys who follow an AI script and are likely not even human in some cases, given their robotic ability to mispronounce many words during their programs.
Rule of thumb: If you don’t see a human host in the You Tube channel show, then you may be watching an AI program, potentially with an AI narrator, and may need to take the information with a grain of salt.
A good example occurred during a ‘Rockford Files’ documentary narrated by an unseen host on YouTube. The narrator called Rockford’s car a Trans Am, even though it lacked the obvious exterior signs of a Trans Am and was supposed to be a lesser Esprit model because money-challenged Rockford could not afford a Trans Am in the series.
The fact is Rockford’s car was a Pontiac Formula model stripped down to resemble a lowly Esprit because the mid-range (but sportier) Formula model was better suited for performance stunt driving scenes. However, it was too flashy for an impoverished private investigator living on a barebones income, but the narrator kept repeating the same Trans Am error, even though the Rockford car was clearly not a TA in the YouTube program’s photo and film excerpts.
Speaking of repetition, many AI YouTube programs dedicated to the car hobby lean heavily toward photo and video reruns of vehicles during their episodes. Even worse, in similar fashion to the Rockford YouTube doc, the AI program does not always match the correct photos and videos with the narration, so the net result is an entire episode based upon obvious mistakes or car models that only vaguely resemble the topic cars.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in AI YouTube shows is they are a collection of algorithms that attempt to mimic the heart and soul of a car guy.
We at MyStarCollectorCar believe they will never truly understand the car guy world until they experience real-life adventures and misadventures with old iron. In other words: never.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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