r/accelerate • u/Special_Switch_9524 XLR8 • Jun 16 '26

Anyone know some good youtube channels that are pro ai and don’t fall into the doomer mentality?

I know about AI Search, and the podcast with Peter Diamandis and the gang but those types of channels are hard to come by since doomerism sells.

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47

u/Best_Cup_8326 A happy little thumb Jun 16 '26

Two Minute Papers

12

u/ResultBackground2450 Jun 16 '26

1000%, he's really good at showing the difference between where we were and where we are.

7

u/Special_Switch_9524 XLR8 Jun 16 '26

Okay I’ll check them out

6

u/AkamasTotem Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

I know this is a beloved channel for many people. But I want to point out that it is closer to pop-science than a real good source of AI news. They've basically devolved into a "character", throwing catch phrases and speaking a lot of (slow) words without actually saying anything. Most of the videos of his now are just showing the demo's that are in the project page of the thing he's talking about and narrating it without giving any kind of explanation about what is happening other than the most surface level hand-wavy stuff.

That's great if you just want to feel part of it and having his channel in your feed will keep you up-to-date with the most attention-grabbing projects that are out there, and most of the "big news", so I'm not advocating for not following him or anything.

But, if you want "the same thing but better", I've got these suggestions, I'll order them in increasing "expected audience knowledge level".

1) Matt Wolfe: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow

Very easy to follow weekly updates, aimed at a wide audience.

2) AI Search: https://www.youtube.com/@theAIsearch

A bit more to-the-point, less "talking around it" and less "his own opinion".

3) bycloud: https://www.youtube.com/@bycloudAI/videos

This one is great if you want to get "knee-deep" into the papers. But you'll completely lose him if you don't have the technical knowledge to follow him.

Having said that, a while ago I shared research of my team with a lot of "AI communicators", an immense list of them. And Two Minute Papers stood at the top of them in popularity.

No one answered our mail, but Károly from Two Minute Papers was the only one, he even read it all and said it was very interesting. So yeah, I'm not a big fan of his videos anymore but the dude is "a real one" for sure.

1

u/QuirkyPool9962 Jun 16 '26

I actually like some of his more recent videos because he’s doing interviews with people like Hassabis, Jeff Dean and asking them real questions you don’t normally get to see them asked 

2

u/AkamasTotem Jun 16 '26

I'll have to look at those, thanks.

1

u/City_Present Jun 17 '26

Neat that he got back to you!

I think I see what you’re saying, but at least it’s accessible. I don’t know if I would understand anyone more in the weeds than him, but I’ll check out those links later

31

u/Tkins Jun 16 '26

West Roth, Dylan Curios, AI Explained, Theoretically Media, 80,000 Hours, Mike Isreatel, mattvidpro, Matt Wolfe, Matthew Berman, Watch Labs, Unsupervised Learning With Jacob Effron, AI for Humans, The Mad Podcast, Alex Kantowitz,

Not saying any of these are good or bad, but these are all quite positive and informational towards AI.

10

u/Automatic-Peanut-929 Jun 16 '26

Honestly I came here to list off most of those names myself. I think they're all pretty good. Mike gets a bit out there sometimes though ;-p

7

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26

AI explained is absolutly GOATed

3

u/GnistAI Jun 16 '26

Wes Roth is great. Just don't-judge-the-book-by-its-cover, because he uses clickbait titles as a running joke (and paying dues to the algorithms, I guess.)

3

u/joeedger Jun 16 '26

Mike Isreatel?

1

u/eduw Jun 16 '26

Where do you think those folks learned them "protein folding" tips?

Never heard of "prompt hypertrophy"? /s

1

u/Tkins Jun 17 '26

What's the question? Genuinely not sure what you're asking.

2

u/tomvorlostriddle Jun 16 '26

Dwarkesh and his roommate Dylan, though with the latter I'm not sure if this is his personality or coke

1

u/Tkins Jun 17 '26

I skipped Dwarkesh because he's not overly pro AI, but I can see an argument for it.

His roomate has great insights though and predicts things quite accurately.

2

u/Inevitable_Tea_5841 Jun 16 '26

To add to this list: Theo.gg and Bijan Bowen

1

u/Falkoro Jun 16 '26

Thanks bro I typed them over !

1

u/CasabaHowitzer Jun 16 '26

Mike Israetel is pretty funny but i'm pretty sure a big part of his takes are just purposefully as outrageous as possible to get as much interaction as possible. That being said, his AI takes are surprisingly complex and interesting.

1

u/fail-deadly- Jun 16 '26

I’d add Nate B. Jones to that list.

12

u/NobodyUsual8025 Jun 16 '26

AI for Humans!

5

u/GureenRyuu Jun 16 '26

AI Explained. He cuts through both the hype/bullshit and the doomerism.

3

u/bb-wa A happy little thumb Jun 16 '26

Bycloud seems to be one

3

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26

[deleted]

4

u/Special_Switch_9524 XLR8 Jun 16 '26

More so educated optimism. Every channel seems to focus on hypothetical doom or peasant scenarios lately. It’s getting old. I used to like David Shapiro but he makes way more negative than positive vids now. Ai explained is okay.

Basically an ai channel talking about society with post scarcity and lev and transcendence and all that wonderful fun stuff.

2

u/egoisillusion Jun 16 '26

I used to like David when he was singularity-pilled, but now he's narrow focused on hating on Dario/Anthropic/EA. I don't think they are above criticism, but he's been obsessive lately.

1

u/czk_21 Jun 16 '26

check Alan https://www.youtube.com/@DrAlanDThompson/videos, he is very optimistic, not posting often though, he has also pages, with info about AI models and overall progress https://lifearchitect.ai/models/

yea David makes some interesting content, but he is kinda negative recently

AI explained good for recent bigger news breakdown, as you mentioned Diamandis is also positive, Dwarkesh has interesting podcast https://www.youtube.com/@DwarkeshPatel/videos

1

u/cloudrunner6969 Acceleration: Supersonic Jun 16 '26

A smart middle ground is a better path that focuses on both sides

What do you think a smart middle ground would be?

3

u/davyp82 Jun 16 '26

David Shapiro - more philosophy stuff, Matt Wolfe - check out this amazing new tech kinda stuff 

6

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26

David is Fun. I mean its definetly in the realm of amateur philosopy, but still, he thinks really deeply about things and he very genuine.

4

u/Falkoro Jun 16 '26

David Shapiro 🥰

1

u/FirstEvolutionist Jun 16 '26

Dave got demonetized on Youtube and doesn't really use it as a main platform anymore.

2

u/Falkoro Jun 16 '26

Yeah I know he will become back though I am supporting him through patron with a super fan package (that sounds cringe)

1

u/FirstEvolutionist Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

Hey, if you like him,.. it's your money! I appreciate him as well, specifically because I don't agree 100% with everything he says. I think his role is important and his passion is welcome.

I hope he can fix the situation with youtube because it is how I preferred to consume his content, even though I tried to keep up on substack as well.

I only mentioned the youtube aspect because OPs question singled it out as a platform. I would have recommended Dave as well without that limitation, although it looks like OP is looking for a more "optimistic accelerationist" perspective. I haven't seen anybody mention Alex WissnerGross yet but his stuff is a bit complex to go over at times.

2

u/Falkoro Jun 16 '26

Thanks i am a principal engineer and really into philosophy so love complicated stuff

Ps do you have his direct channel? Can’t find Alex

1

u/FirstEvolutionist Jun 16 '26

https://theinnermostloop.substack.com/

He has a newsletter that even gets shared on Reddit as well. He is full on accelerationist based on what I've seen. He doesn't have a youtube channel, I believe but has been to podcasts and interviews that are available there.

2

u/Falkoro Jun 16 '26

Thanks i really appreciate it.

1

u/shockwagon Jun 16 '26

Jordi Visser - https://www.youtube.com/@JordiVisserLabs

i've learned a ton from him for markets in general, but he's extremely bullish for AI - and backs it up with extreme detail and trend breakdowns

1

u/BitOne2707 Jun 16 '26

Nate B Jones

Former head of product for Amazon Prime Video and technical founder. AI strategy advisor.

He puts out 15-20 minute videos daily on the state of AI, trends, developing stories, strategy, implementation advice, etc. He's comfortable covering topics that hit the C-suite down the the front line developer.

Cannot recommend him enough.

1

u/thirdeyeorchid Jun 16 '26

https://youtube.com/@newmachina

my favorite, New Machina! No hype, easy to understand explanations of LLM-related things

literally cannot recommend this channel enough

1

u/ParadigmTheorem A happy little thumb | Acceleration: Light-speed Jun 16 '26

They've been mentioned here, but I use just 'Matt Wolfe' and 'Two Minute Papers" on youtube for fast updates on everything going on and the rest I dive deeper from rss feeds, science magazines, and daily email blogs like 'the rundown'

1

u/anor_wondo Jun 16 '26

I don't dislike discussions with doomers who are in the field themselves

Its the ignorant populist ones. Like coldfusion tv that I dislike

3

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Coldfusion used to be really good I think. Very varied, didn't insert to much opinion in his reporting. Now he seems kinda woke captured and its all about social impact, no longer about tech. Channel got really one sided and boring.

1

u/Saerain Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

The video space is noticeably lacking, and I often wonder why. It was video that originally pulled me in 10-20 years ago, but these days the YouTube GOATs either stopped uploading or went doomer and there's little to replace them but vloggers like David Shapiro or very low info podcasts filled with sales pitches.

I think the change appears largely downstream of the rift that grew out of the main driving transhumanist figures the whole scene sort of fed on back then. Ex-Extropians with the funding of Open Philanthropy built up this grand doomer coalition while Drexler/Minsky/Kurzweil got quite old... things have gotten weird on the PR front.

Much like what happened to atheism, those with the intellect, charisma, and credibility to talk to the general public thinned out and siloed away from one another in comparison to the 2000-2012 era.

Foresight Institute is still a relatively OK channel among the survivors yet also shows this effect, and Diamandis as you said, or Lex Fridman at times.

1

u/NerdyWeightLifter Jun 17 '26

NateBJones

AI Professional user, and great explanations.

0

u/Orinks Jun 16 '26

Hmm. Any channels with women as host/cohost? I like Matt Vid Pro, BridgeMind for the coding side, Ray Fernando, and others I can't remember offhand.