Science YouTuber Hank Green, known for SciShow, Crash Course and his 3.2 million subscribers, has publicly apologised to fans after viewers noticed a telltale sign of AI-generated writing in one of his videos. An oddly placed line, ‘I appreciate the pushback’, appeared to be a stray response from a chatbot that had slipped into the finished script, sparking speculation online that Green was leaning on AI more than he had let on.
In a since-deleted post on X, Green admitted he had used ChatGPT for research on the script while working under significant pressure, though he maintained the disputed line was actually addressed to his episode’s guest rather than an AI tool. He followed up with a longer, more personal apology on Reddit, saying he felt he had let his audience down and pledging to scale back his output.
Green went further, reflecting openly on what he described as an unhealthy reliance on large language models, saying the growing dopamine hit he gets from using them has left him feeling disconnected from how his audience views the technology. He said he is not opposed to AI outright but is wary of its economic and environmental costs, and plans to slow down and be more transparent about his process going forward.
Source: techcrunch.com
