LTT is incredibly corporate (+ a private jet??), Mrwhosetheboss is super AI-pilled (generated “hand painted” wallpaper of him and wife? Really?), Marques has his own controversies (e.g. exceeding highway speeds in a school zone, wallpaper app cashgrab, etc. + he does not seem to have any concept of value or budget), Gamers Nexus has their own problems (e.g. they claimed how Matrix could be Israeli spyware, with the source being a poorly received Reddit comment), etc.
Wendell from Level1Techs is still quite good and relatively out of controversy, perhaps because he doesn’t target a general audience like the above? Veronica Explains (Linux and adjacent topics) and Jeff Geerling (primarily self-hosting and networking bits) are also great in their niches. Salem Techspurts (the greatest technician to ever live) and Hugh Jeffreys both cover topics relating to right to repair and they make interesting videos around vintage electronics as well!
Are there any other good tech creators that are not super corporate, not AI-pilled, and outside of controversy?
What does “AI-pilled” mean? Complaining about a generated wallpaper/cover image seems rather nitpicky to me when YouTube does that for everyone now. As in, that war has been lost.
In fact, complaining about AI-generated cover images in general seems rather nitpicky. The actual content wasn’t AI generated, just a tiny little advertising detail.
I dunno: It’s like people complaining about “kids these days.” “Instead of spending a few hours working on a proper clickbait cover image, kids these days are using AI!”
“AI-pilled” means you.
Except thumbnail artists exists and can be incredibly meaningful to the success of a video. AI has stolen their work and now directly compete with them. It might be a small part of the whole production of a video, but theft still went in to the box, and less money for the working class comes out.
Don’t call it theft. Theft is what happens when the original owner doesn’t have that thing anymore.
Nothing was “stolen”. AI just lowered the value of generic “thumbnail artists” and probably increased their value as artisans for those willing to pay for a premium service.
That’s what generative AI does: It makes stuff of mediocre quality that’s “good enough” for the masses. However, if you want something better than that, you have to pay a professional.
My hypothesis is that Baumol’s Cost Disease combined with AI is going to result in the collapse of capitalism. Where bespoke service work (e.g. hiring a thumbnail artist) is going to become more expensive over time while generic stuff that doesn’t need to be high quality is going to become cheaper and cheaper, to the point where it’s basically free. We’re almost there, actually.
Arun often puts heavy emphasis on the AI features on the devices he reviews, making them sound super magical and wonderful. Having a machine generate “hand painted” artwork also seems wrong.
Also of note, this is for a wallpaper on a smartphone (that I believe he continued to use on his main phone), and was used as an example of how Samsung is actually far ahead of the competition and they aren’t really lagging behind the competition.
Aside from his views on AI, he also makes videos in the style of “I spent X amount of money on these gadgets”, which aren’t to my taste. In particular, I don’t enjoy how he covers fitness/health gadgets that border on the line of pseudoscience.
It’s not a term invented by critics of the AI craze, but rather proponents (who apparently don’t realize just how insane it sounds). First time I heard it was when an enthusiastic coworker sent this article to me in an email. He was completely serious. Made some off-hand remarks that sounded borderline cultist about people who are “completely misguided” about AI. He’s been sending out emails about AI for a couple years now and I realized that I’ve been watching a case AI psychosis gradually unfold.
Here are some of my favorites in no particular order:
- Jeff Girling
- LaurieWired
- The Serial Port
- KRAZAM
- Benn Jordan
- Explaining Computers
- No Boilerplate
- Ben Eater
- The Thought Emporium
- GreatScott!
- Engineer Bo
- AlphaPhoenix
AlphaPhoenix is the only one I’m familiar with there. But he really does some wild stuff.
I also enjoy Applied Science for some really technical stuff.
How about Technology Connections?
You’re describing a ridiculously wide swathe of tech topics.
I’m guessing you’re going to tell me these people fail a purity test of yours, but content creators have to put out a LOT of content and it’s very likely one of their videos will be off. The question is not if a creator makes a mistake or a bad call, but how they respond to it.
- Right-to-repair: Louis Rossman
- Anti-AI: Ed Zitron (The Tech Report?)
- General mockery: SAMTime, occassionally Angela Collier
Also that guy that made rat neurons play Doom.
Thought Emporium, for those curious.
Based on this, I recommend electroboom.
This suggestion is probably out of scope, but I like most of Dr. Ian Cuttress’ videos on “TechTechPotato.”
He follows up and coming chip architectures and fab technologies.
Some of his content is blatantly sponsored though.
Wendel is big on AI and won’t shut the fuck up about it.
People say that it’s ok because he pushes for “local” ai. My brother in christ, local AI is expensive af and those models were also trained with unfathomable amounts of stolen data. How can anyone in their right mind support that?
Bringus Studios. The entire channel is a treasure trove of information for hacking electronics.
Uwos Labs. Run by a former R&D guy. Not exclusively tech, but lots of good information.
LaurieWired does some interesting, if very niche, stuff on C++ programming techniques. I also enjoy some of Dave’s Garage (thinking of his recent video on CAN Bus architecture); I don’t love the generative graphics he sometimes uses but his lecture-style videos are very tightly-written and well-delivered. His interviews with Raymond Chen and Dave Cutler were great as well (and it’s nice to hear about the days before Microsoft became a slop factory).
You might enjoy Cathode Ray Dude; he doesn’t really do general tech videos (they’re more like TechMoan, deep dives down unique rabbit holes), and his release cadence is definitely that of a one-man operation, but I really like his presentation style and depth of research.
All I watch is CRD and tech connections. Level headed smart folks.
Technology Connections is awesome! The man can make dishwashers and ceiling fans sound interesting
Does Technology Connections count? He doesn’t really do cutting edge tech though.
Him, and CathodeRayDude were my immediate thoughts. Both are great, but neither do new stuff.
“This week: microwaves.”
checks video length
48 minutes? wtf okay I’m curious
This week: NO VIDEO
Last video: 1 month ago. Ceiling fans. Already watched.
You son of a bitch… Got my hopes up.
Dave 2d?
You’ve got to be kidding right.
GamersNexus’ team pointed to multiple areas of concerns with various software… The source was literally in the video and you can see donations and contributions on the Matrix project page. Their team also does anti-corpo content and is more tech journalism after the AI boom. In fact, out of all the ones you listed you liked, he is the most anti AI and anti Big Tech company channel, with rossman being a close 2nd but that depends what about AI you don’t like.
Wendal also likes AI, but self hosted style instead of big corpo. He and Steve do videos together if you really paid attention.
If you like technicians with right to repair and ownership, the rossman is your man.
According to who you seem to side with, controversy is whoever you don’t like (large channels), and controversy free is anyone you do (small channels)… Just let the algorithms help you out if you want outrage to be the basis for your consumption.
Is anything interesting happening in technology?
Seems like all the headlines are either AI related or consumer slop. So any creator following current news is going to struggle to stay relevant.
