Post #4428611

2026-08-06 21:57 UTC

hey so about your favorite boy hank green. it’s such a shame that he went overboard with the LLM stuff, that was impossible to see coming, good on him for realizing he was addicted right? well wishes for the good boy! anyway there’s smoking gun evidence that he was paid by effective altruists to do marketing for the “AI is so dangerous but so revolutionary” flavor of critihype. this is alleged by hank green expert hank green in the washington post, as well as an EA in charge of influencer marketing. he was literally being paid by TESCREALs. someone in the same community ran a program where TikTokers were required to post an AI critihype video a day in a cult-like environment where they were subjected to “voluntary” waterboarding and other forms of indoctrination. I’m not kidding, this literal thing happened. here’s @davidgerard@circumstances.run’s pivot to AI with the evidence linked: https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/08/06/the-ai-doomsday-cult-recruits-social-media-influencers/

Replies (4)

@zzt@mas.to 2026-08-07 01:02

@davidgerard@circumstances.run “shame on green but” eat shit. this is a self-admitted shill doing active damage to science and since he’s an influencer, we can stop him by spreading the word. this is the one clearcut case where having a problem with someone on the internet will stop the damage they can do. the fuck is wrong with you that you want to give this a pass? you want guys like this to be spokespeople for scientific truth? why?

Open ##4428610
@zzt@mas.to 2026-08-06 22:02

@davidgerard@circumstances.run here’s David’s post with the YouTube video: https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/117050465686356385 if you give a shit about truth and ethics in science communication and media, please show your friends who watch YouTube or TikTok or any of the other video sites what a shill looks like when they expose themselves. this is it. there’s no doubt that this is what green has done. don’t forgive him when he comes crawling back blaming anything but his own greed. you will see more of this from influencers very soon, and next time you need to not be surprised that it happened. you need to know marketing when you see it, even if you trust the mouth the words are coming from.

Open ##4437155
@zzt@mas.to 2026-08-08 11:48

@davidgerard@circumstances.run by the way, I’d like to highlight something from Green’s statement in the Washington Post because it’s worse in context and I want to make sure everyone has that context: > Green, the YouTube star who did a paid post with ControlAI for his science channel, said in a statement that he wants to give his viewers a better understanding of this increasingly powerful technology by exposing them to a variety of views on AI. He pointed to recent unsponsored interviews on his personal YouTube channel that included critics of AI company hype, Sen. Sanders and one of the co-authors of “If Anyone Builds It, Everybody Dies.” ControlAI is a wealthy political entity in the effective altruist sphere, and Green took their money in order to present their AI doom marketing as both science and as legitimate criticism of AI. given that AI doom presupposes the impending creation of an AI god and is the preferred framing of the AI companies themselves, it is neither science nor critique.

Open ##4447559
@bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev 2026-08-08 10:59

@zzt@mas.to @davidgerard@circumstances.run Honestly one of the biggest annoyances to me with AI people and also one of the huge "you're in a religious cult" red flags is that literally *every* time it becomes relevant that I don't like generative AI the conversation *immediately* turns to "oh, you poor, unenlightened soul, let me show you the light and convert you!"

Open ##4450276