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Historians Alarmed As AI Floods YouTube With Inaccurate History

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

AI is taking over YouTube’s history content, threatening authentic creators while altering how people understand historical events.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• AI videos often repeat shallow, inaccurate information with low-quality visuals.
• AI-generated videos run hours long, covering obscure or sensationalized topics.
• Some historians are adapting by appearing in videos to prove authenticity.

AI-generated history videos are flooding YouTube, confusing viewers and threatening the work of real historians and creators, as detailed in a new report by 404Media .

The press release reports how viewer recalls waking up at 3 a.m. to a glitching video called ‘ Boring History for Sleep | How Medieval PEASANTS Survived the Coldest Nights and More ’. “In the end, Anne Boleyn won a kind of immortality… FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,” the AI narrator said in a fake British accent.

The next night, the viewer discovered multiple new channels on their homepage, including ‘Sleepless Historian’, ‘Boring History Bites’, and ‘Dreamoria’. 404 Media notes how these videos span more than three hours, covering obscure topics such as medieval diseases and brothels from Pompeii.

However, most of these videos are “slop content,” which consists mainly of AI-generated narratives that repeat shallow information.

“It’s completely shocking to me,” Pete Kelly, who runs the popular ‘History Time’ channel, said to 404 Media. “It used to take six months to make a video, now someone can do the same thing in a day. The visuals they use are completely inaccurate often. And I’m fearful because this is everywhere,” Kelly added.

“I absolutely hate it, primarily the fact that they’re historically inaccurate… We need to be looking at the past and it needs to be nuanced and we need to be aware of where the evidence or an argument comes from,” Kelly said to 404Media. He has even begun appearing in videos himself to show viewers he is a real person.

Amateur anthropologist Pete from ‘Ancient Americas’ agreed, noting that AI videos often produce “vague and surface-level” content and “slideshow-quality” visuals, failing to replicate the depth of human research, as noted by 404Media.

‘The French Whisperer’, another creator, said to 404Media that his YouTube views dropped by 60% over the past year, and attributes this loss to AI content surge. “An entire niche can be threatened overnight by AI […] Unless you have millions of followers, this is not a reasonable career choice,” he said.

AI-generated content has already caused significant damage to historical content beyond YouTube. On Facebook, spammers used Meta’s monetization program to create fake Auschwitz prisoner images , deceiving users.

Social media users create fake stories, which Pawel Sawicki from the Auschwitz Memorial describes as, “Here we have somebody making up the stories… for some kind of strange emotional game that is happening on social media,” occurring on these platforms.

More broadly, researchers warn that historical content created by AI poses a threat by implanting false memories, creating false historical narratives that alter how people remember actual events.

Despite the AI flood, creators like Kelly and Pete remain committed. “AI may be polluting the river but I still have to swim in it or sink,” Pete said to 404 Media. “I take the research very seriously […] I’ve never seen AI do this. It’s always a slideshow of crappy AI images,” Pete added.

Kelly concluded: “It’s worrying to me just for humanity […] for the state of knowledge in the world.”

Image by Anton Nazaretian, from Unsplash

AI Tools Help Restaurants Slash Food Waste And Costs

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

AI may be changing how restaurants address food waste problems.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• Food waste produces 8% of global carbon emissions.
• AI tool Winnow identifies 1,000+ foods as they’re discarded.
• Four Seasons Costa Rica cut food waste by 50% in 8 months.

The restaurant and hospitality sector loses more than $100 billion a year in food waste, as reported by Business Insider (BI). According to ReFED’s 2025 report , U.S. businesses alone had surplus food worth $108 billion in 2023. Beyond the financial hit, food waste accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions, as noted by BI.

In order to overcome this issue, BI reports that many businesses are resorting to AI solutions. For example, Winnow is an AI tool that helps restaurants monitor their waste. It does this using scales and motion-sensing cameras, which identify more than 1,000 discarded food items, providing chefs with immediate data and weekly performance reports.

BI reports Winnow use in more than 90 countries, assisting restaurants in portion control, leftover utilization, and meal planning.

For example, Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica cut food waste by 50% in eight months, as a result of Winnow. “It’s simply part of the basic daily operation,” said executive chef Emiliano Rabia Sottil, who now donates extra meals to food banks and reuses trimmings for stocks.

In another case, Hotels in Ireland have also reached significant waste reduction results. For example, Ashford Castle reached 69% food waste reduction in 2024, while The Lodge achieved a 90% decrease.

“It’s brought about a lot more awareness on our waste,” said Liam Finnegan, executive head chef at Ashford Castle, as noted by BI. Chefs there now turn croissants into bread pudding, carrot tops into pesto, and chicken skin into crackers.

Staff are embracing the change, too. “It’s very tangible and engaging for young people,” said Jonathan Keane, executive head chef at The Lodge, as reported by BI.

For many chefs, technology is more than a tool. “The idea is to create that culture,” Rabia Sottil said to BI, pointing to a future where cutting waste is as important as creating delicious food.

Beyond hotel kitchens, similar efforts are underway in the UK . Indeed, the UK food-tech company Zest is working with Nestlé and other partners to test an AI system that identifies surplus food products to find alternative distribution channels.

The two-week trial of this tool resulted in an 87% reduction of food waste, potentially preventing the loss of 1.5 million meals nationwide.

Recent research supports the effectiveness of AI-based waste-tracking systems in reducing food waste across hotels and restaurants. A new study found that implementing AI devices reduced food waste by 23–51% per meal, while organizations saved between 23–39% of their costs.

The intervention program raised employee understanding, which led to various corrective actions, like adjusting portion sizes and preparing buffet items only when needed.

With these results in mind, universities , businesses, and policymakers need to establish responsible implementation methods for these tools to achieve lasting social and environmental benefits.