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The AI Paradox: Results of My Thumbnail Experiment (Ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-15 18:05:19
Imported:
2026-06
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The AI Paradox: Results of My Thumbnail Experiment (Ad-free)

I did an experiment with an AI thumbnail for last week's video on the PBS-1. The result? You all hate it, but you also watched it about 30% more than when you saw the regular thumbnail...

Comments

Mark Blundell

The subscribed viewer numbers would be interesting if Google made them available to you. I suspect the new style might grab people who aren't already subscribed, where most subscribers were going to click anyway. It sucks that creators now all put their face on the thumbnail with some dopey expression - because it works. I wish it didn't work, but statistically speaking 50% of people are of below average intelligence

FrugelViewer

Thank you for staying loyal to your loyal, legacy viewers. I just thought you had a slide template with the black/white background, “Forgotten Weapons” logo, spot for flag and spot for text and just copy and pasted the text, flag and appropriate image of the item into and sent it. AI has it’s place in things like cancer research. When it comes to stuff I’d like to watch, listen to or read it will be a very long time before it’s up to the level I want. Thanks for doing what you do, the way you do it.

Claus Økær Holdt Hansen

I can see the reason behind such a thumbnail. But I personally would never click on a video with that kind of thumbnail unless I already followed the creater, as I link it to AI crap.

Carsten Moser

I try to give an explanation: I saw it and thought: "Oh, that's something new and special. Have to try it." If it would not have been "new" (as it would be in a few days time, when i get used to it, i would not be so curious.) I Personally like the old, FULL weapon picture style :-D

Joao Espanha

I would watch it even if it had no thumbnail, but if it works, go for it! #GoSkynet!

Squid556

Thanks for not caving into the ai trash

Retired No Bad Days

Your correct in all of you assumptions. Your thumbnail is your trademark. Do not chance it. With regards to AI, when reviewing some of the text books I read 25 years ago that explained how AI is a digital knock of your nerves cells and how they react, the state of AI to day would be similar to a one year old baby. AI that I have used so far has no inference ability. The engineers I have talked to that have used it found it unreliable and requires close review and many correction.

Felix Raithel

I prefer your classic thumbnails. those AI created ones may look more catchy but they put your content in relation with AI created content wich is mostly annoying. your content is excellent. and those AI thumbnails don't do it justice.

Philipp Hintermüller

please stay with your own thumbnails - i hate AI content! love your CONTENT

Ryan G

Hey, Ian, this was a really interesting video. I think there's a happy middle ground here where you can spruce up the thumbnails of your videos without resorting to AI. Software like Lightroom makes it very easy to select an object and "paint with gradients" to add texture and definition. This is a standard trick that photographers have been using for years to make photos more visually appealing, and it works really well on round surfaces like that suppressor. Putting little blurbs on the thumbnail is a bit cheap, but it does definitely drive some interest in a video. You should check out Mustard's thumbnails. He is a terrific educational channel, like yours, but he does use these tricks in his thumbnails to appease the almighty algorithm. https://youtube.com/@mustardchannel?si=COmo5jVIkHdggWbR