YouTube’s New Ad Tactics Designed to Extract More Money from Viewers #1821

The lead story for Thursday, May 15. YouTube is integrating Google's Gemini AI to place ads at the most engaging moments in videos, making them harder to avoid. This AI driven tactic identifies peak points to maximize viewer retention during ad playback, indirectly pushing more users towards YouTube premium. While ad blockers are being curbed, content creators may benefit from increased ad revenue. I wanna welcome you to episode 1,821.

I'm your host, Todd Cochran, and we are back in the studio in Southern Michigan. So we'll talk about that here in a second. But, this first story up is with YouTube is is wanting to extract more dollars out of everyone's pockets. And I I heard, I was following a conversation the other day that was an interesting I guess for a better word, an interesting analogy. In that, those that are currently having to sit through ads, largely do it because they can't afford not

to. I thought that was a interesting dilemma. Now or interesting, you know, hypothesis. Now I've been paying for YouTube premium for a long time because I just got sick and tired of of all the ads, and I know a lot of people are in the same boat. And, you know, as I've come back and now kinda getting settled in here over the last couple of days, you know, I'm starting to look at the services that I'm paying for month to month, the stuff that I'm using, and what I'm not. And it's one of

those times. It's kind of like spring cleaning, time to cancel some services, and so forth. But

with YouTube, you know, there's a lot of people that are outside The United States that cannot afford the subscription, like, as an example where I just came from in The Philippines. There's just no way. There's no way people can, afford to to to pay for YouTube premium. It's it's just it it doesn't work. And, you know, this is this is a dilemma for those folks, that are you know, they have to to pay for you know, listen to the

advertising. So do you think that those that are less fortunate are the ones that the advertisers are now targeting? Because if I'm paying for premium, I'm I'm definitely not being targeted. Not no way, no how. Because I pay for I pay for the subscription, and I and I I don't want it. I don't want the ads. So I'm curious. Let's say all of you in this regard. But again, this is a, this is a big deal. And and and basically, gonna shove more ads strategically at you, while you're watching. So

I'd love to hear feedback. [email protected]. Of course, a shout out to our incredible sponsor, at GoDaddy. Big thank you to GoDaddy here for for taking care of the show. And you too can take advantage of that by going over to keatoncentral.com/godaddy. But, really, in all honesty to all of you, you are the heartbeat of this show. And if you wanna support the GNC mission, head to geekmancentral.com/insider and become a GNC

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So just a little bit of an update. Rob and I did a show yesterday, and it it seemed like what could go wrong did go wrong even though I had the studio turned up and and running. I I don't know. It's just one of those things. The the NDI on the PTZ camera, which for those of you who don't know is Ethernet, video signal. It's just acting hokey. So, I I basically am running SDI right now until we figure out what's going on with the network and why it's, you know, why it's why it's choking per se.

So, yeah. So, hopefully, the show today goes off with a much better, a much better without a hitch, I did a whole bunch of additional testing. Checked all the network connections, made sure all the computers were right on the right network that they were supposed to be, even did a couple of minor changes to couple of things that, are, you know, watched here in regards to the show. And, I I think I think, we're we're in good shape for today's podcast.

So, hopefully, everything, and, you know, everything came up good. But my travel back from The Philippines was uneventful. Got into Chicago on Sunday night, and then Monday took the train, and then got in here about 6PM, Monday night. Right back in the grind of things Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course, I'm getting ready to go to London. I I'll depart for London, Monday morning. Actually, Monday afternoon. But, so I'm also you know, getting ready. I

haven't packed or nothing. Waiting some on some deliveries, and we'll load up and go to London for the week. So in what's, ironic is that Memorial Day hits on the day that I would have been back to do the show. So you guys are gonna be without me, for a bit here. So I apologize for no shows in a row. Just didn't just kind of the timing worked out. So, again, I apologize about that. But, we'll give a shout out to our, to our insiders here in a few minutes. But, let's go ahead and jump into the

full stack of of content. It just feels surreal, to be honest with you, to be home. And even though I was working 9PM to 4AM, I was usually going to bed at about 5AM. So my body still has had to adjust and do a little bit of a time shift, being awake on the opposite end of the spectrum than what it was. So a little bit of jet lag, and, of course, it's not gonna help leaving Monday for London and and then, I'll be back. But it doesn't look like I'm completely centered. I don't know why. Let me,

let's look here. Am I centered up? Doesn't look like it, does it? It looks like we're, very, very much zoomed in. Am I zoomed out? Yeah. We'll do that. We'll leave it at that. So, anyway, thanks. I'm rambling here. Let's go ahead and get into the tech.

Now some of you may get a reaction from this headline. Humans are giving off visible light that vanishes when we die. Yes. This is a science article. Humans give off visible light that vanishes when we die. A new study has been found. So those of you that are believers may go, is that the soul turning the light off? But but it turns out the humans go the human glow might not be just poetic.

A new study from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council Canada has captured physical evidence showing that living organisms or oh my goodness. Let me be careful here. Organisms including mice and plants emit a faint visible light that vanishes upon death. The barely there glow known as ultra weak photon emission is produced by chemical reactions inside cells.

While these bio photons are far too dim for our eyes to see, they're very real and scientists have now observed the glow flicker out in real time. This is a very interesting article. Because I'm sure we've all seen these videos that it looks like a soul is leaving a body, you know, a faint image of sorts. But, I guess we do shine, And there is some science behind it, but it makes you go, doesn't it? It does me, for sure. Max. Oh my god. They can't make up their mind. Max, which was once HBO,

is now reverting to HBO Max. This is a second renaming in three years. They they can't figure it out. And, you know, didn't we talk about this, on the show some time ago that that they were they were flip flopping back and forth again? So, again, Warner Brothers announced today that streaming services undergoing yet another branding change, and it's probably because people didn't know HBO. They probably thought, where did HBO go?

So the streamer previously known as HBO Max 02/2018 to 02/2022, then as Max twenty twenty two, twenty twenty five, will henceforth be known as, again, HBO Max. Unbelievable. I I think we all saw this handwriting on the wall. Now I just talked about doing a little bit of a health check on my subscriptions. Well, according to a CNET survey, Americans spend over a thousand dollars a year on online subscriptions.

The economy has over half of subscribers second guessing their monthly subscription charges. And, you know, this is pretty this is probably a pretty, you know, probably pretty reasonable to think about. And I think about, okay, Netflix, HBO, think about YouTube, and then some other subscriptions I got. You know? Pretty quickly, we're getting up there in in prices.

But this survey dives into how much US adults are paying for subscriptions and found the average US adult, again, spends a thousand 80 a year. We got Netflix, Disney, they're all raising prices. Over half, 61% of subscribers are second guessing their subscription costs out of uncertainty in the

economy, and 26% have already canceled at least one even though subscription creep creep is still on the rise. Here's what you gotta do. You have more than one credit card? Many folks do. Right? Many folks have more than one. Put all of your subscriptions on one card. And then when you get that monthly bill every month, you see and don't put anything else on that card. If you've got more than if you get, like, a card you hardly ever use, put all your subscriptions on that card.

And then you keep an eye on it and see how things are going up and down. This is the best way to do it. Now Apple I got a bunch of stuff on Apple subscriptions too, and, they give you kind of a report on your daily spend and stuff as it is now. But someone told me to do this. This is isn't it this is not an originating idea from me. I've got a couple of cards that I basically have had for a number of years that I don't have nothing on them.

And, you know, sometimes they threaten to cancel your card if you don't spend no money and, you know, it's probably a good thing anyway. But I'm very careful in canceling cards, too many cards, because what can happen is it can really affect your credit rating. So putting the subscriptions on one card is a smart

way to track everything. If you move everything over to that, then you're gonna know what your month to month reoccurring subscriptions are because now it's in amongst all the other charges on your credit card bill, and it's easy to to lose track of. So, this is a suggestion I have for you, and, I think I think it'll help you out. The president is pushing Apple to make your next iPhone in The United States, not India.

And, of course, Apple has agreed to up production in The US according to the president, and they're going doesn't say how much, though. Speaking to the press in Qatar or Qatar, Trump said that a little problem with Tim he said he had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday regarding Apple's plans to ship production away from China, India in a bid to avoid tariffs, but the president has asked Cook not to build out its Indian manufacturing base.

So but they're only gonna do a $500 billion investment in The United States. And, of course, the cost of labor is the big determining factor here. Again, very inexpensive, almost slave labor in China, same thing in India. So, you know, your price of your phone will go up if they bring manufacturing back to The US because they have to pay a living wage. So well, you would hope they would. May only be hourly, which really is, you know, it depends on how much. So we'll see what happens.

I I've got a T Mobile phone. My company pays for my Verizon phone. And, but, you know, there's a lot of perks, and these perks are on credit cards too, not just phones. So just remember, if you've got a T Mobile subscription or Verizon or any of those, there's lots of perks on these phones. You get discounts on stuff, get discounts on subscriptions. Sometimes subscriptions are free.

So part of this consolidation is if you're paying for a T Mobile or Verizon account, you need to use these perks that are offered with your phone subscription. Why not? Right? It's $20 here, $30 there, whatever it may be, or even a discount in savings. So very, very smart way to save some money here. So, this is a great article. Again, hidden US carrier perks you might have not known about it.

And, again, some stuff like free Disney plus from Verizon, five g ultra wideband access in eligible areas, device trade in, T Mobile has T Mobile Tuesdays, Netflix on us in certain, plans, free scam protection. It just goes on and on. For me, T Mobile, the biggest, advantage is international coverage. As soon as I hit another country, I'm I get data. I get text. My phone rings like it

normally would. I don't have to even though I do, because if you're I've gone too much on your international plan on T Mobile, even they start looking at you if you're spending way too many months outside. So I use a, a monthly data plan that I get with an eSIM, and it cost me, like, 8 or $9 a month to have an eSIM. And that way, I'm not racking up, T Mobile's data, while I'm traveling. I'm just getting text and phone.

Whereas my Verizon phone, I have to completely be careful because unless I pay for an international plan, it gets very, very expensive very, very quickly. I had to take a business call, near the last day I was in The Philippines, and it came in on my, Verizon phone, which, again, no data plan because I I don't answer the phone, but this

one, I had to. Forty five minutes on the phone will probably be about one month's worth of, charges of for having been on international, but that was the only time I had done that. So, yeah, just one of those things you you know, these these perks. FTC has delayed click to cancel rule implementation to July. So the FTC has postponed enforcement of consumer friendly click to cancel,

giving businesses two additional months to comply. We've been working on this and, actually includes the, the requirement to email folks and let them know that, hey. Your bill is going to, it's going to update. It's gonna charge in three, four, five days. So this is all part of this click to cancel, that companies have to conform with. Google is confirming plans to make Gemini.ai directly into Chrome. That's really no surprise there. But this has been confirmed.

The intent incorporated is Google AI assistant. No idea when it will show up, but it will all work at Google IO twenty twenty five that's happening, in about six days. So, we we will see where this leads. One thing there was a study that came up for marketing AI, and they're talking about

how big companies that already have a Google subscription are not paying for other AI subscriptions for their employees, which I thought was was curious. But, we will see where where this all goes. Netflix is gonna use AI to make ad breaks look less like ad breaks.

How is that? It's gonna make ads that, make spots that blend in with the show and movies. Kind of hard to to stop that if it's baked in part of the content. It's been announced the made of smart glasses will soon provide detailed email, information regarding visual stimuli. This has been designed to help the blind and low vision community. So these, Ray Ban Meta glasses are getting upgrade. The AI assistant will now provide a detailed response regarding what's in front of the user.

Meta says it will kick in when people ask about their environment. To get started, users have to opt in via device settings section in the Meta AI app. So they shared a video of the goal of the tool. You can check that out. Link will be up in the show notes. Now this next action by Microsoft, I would consider this to be a little bit on the naughty side. Microsoft is basically saying your computer can't support this. It's giving custom advice based on your PC hardware.

The new feature is currently being tested. Expect to roll out to all users within a few weeks. So the new feature can be found in the settings app, and it's basically, am I running the latest version of Windows West? What is the latest Windows version? How? And it basically is giving you a breakdown of what happens when you try to run certain apps. To me, this just looks like an absolute ploy to get more money out of customers and have them buy new laptops. That's what it really smells like.

According to the BBC, Elton John and Dua Lipa seek protection from AI along with 400 other artists. A letter signed by more than 400 British musicians addressed to sir Care Starmer says failing to give that protection would mean that giving away their work to tech firms. So they're looking for a relief. They want copyright laws to be updated that protect them from AI. I I I think they're gonna be slow to react on this. I I just things are moving so fast. I I don't know

what's gonna happen. Of course, the lawsuits are coming already so or have come already, so time will tell.

The Hummer EV can navigate tight spaces with new king crab rear steering. So, this Hummer EV does not look like anything like the Hummer I'm used to, and I'm not super impressed with what it looks like. It's definitely big and it's definitely expensive, but it does have this crab walk feature that lets the massive truck rotate all four wheels to drive diagonally at low speeds. The 2026 model year Hummer EV is getting even more crab like called King Crab, and it allows for even

more maneuverability than before. At low speed, King Crab turns the right rear slightly faster than the front wheels, enabling the hulk or Hummer dart in between boulders or through a, cups of trees. How about getting your just getting around traffic? I think that's probably, more like it. Hey. I do wanna thank our insiders.

I do wanna thank, James Fletcher for his $2 sustaining donation, Nigel Cortrell for his $25 Alahi chief donation, Dale Taylor for his $25 Alahi chief donation, and Andrew Palmer for his $5 Ohana donation. We also had some boost come in. I see that, Darren, your your boost are working, so I think we're good now, good to go on that. And, so I appreciate that. We've had some streaming sets too that have come in, and, that's always exciting to see,

all of that infrastructure working. It's all basically on my my little Umbrel, disconnected from Albi and seems that cleared things up. So, yeah, boost away, ladies and gentlemen. You can get, you can do that through a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com. So definitely definitely check that out. But, again, thank you to our insiders. If I missed anybody, I apologize. I went back through PayPal and looked, and those are the ones that I was able to pull out.

The largest US steel manufacturers put production on the back burner after cyber attack. Nucor, one of the biggest steel manufacturing US was forced to shut down.

Parts of the operation addressed an ongoing cyberattack. The company confirmed the news in eight k form filed with US Securities Exchange Commission. So not much more detail than that at, at this time. The iPhone, of course, is the iPhone is soon to turn 20, but, there's they're worried that they're gonna be pushing on all glass model. We know that Steve Jobs loved glass. If you look at the design of most Apple buildings, it's glass, glass, glass.

And, Jobs love the glasses reading your iPhone 16 is covered by Corning's Gorilla Glass, plus it's really great glass. But, they're saying that there might be, some surprises coming on the on this next release. Time will tell where that goes. At the same time, Apple Maps makes new expert ratings to make it easier to find the best places to eat. Experts have come in from from, some stick in recent years, but, ultimately, their insights are invaluable.

And according to Apple, we should listen to them more, which is why Apple is now utilizing experts to improve Apple Maps for users. I tell you, finding a good place to eat. Of course, I don't need a Michelin recommendation. That's generally not in the budget, to be quite frank. So, apparently, these map updates will happen in increments, so we'll keep you advised. Wix takes aim at Adobe and Canva with a new online design platform from website builder to visual design suite. So Wix is expanding.

Again, it announced the release of Wixle, an AI powered visual design suite that's affecting alternative likes of Canva and Adobe Express. According to the company, Wixel aims to democratize visual design and other works designers and non designers will now have the tools to create professional grade content and assets. Lot of of course, this just goes all the way up against, you know, a lot of lot of individuals are gonna be impacted negatively from AI. We've

talked about this a lot. You know, the work and fiber has dropped dramatically because of AI as well. Because graphic guys like me that don't know how to make any graphics are able to make some pretty cool graphics. I'll show you just some. For those of you watching, let's see if I can bring this up. Let me bring the the media up. Let's see here. So these are some of the stuff that I for those of you watching, this is some of the stuff I've been creating with Sora and different examples.

And, you know, the the output of this is just, I mean, really awesome. I could have never, in a hundred years, been able to do what I've done with some of these Sora images. And, again, a lot of it's just text and a little bit of images here and there. But for me, this has just been a godsend. Now there's one that came up today that does not work. Made me look like Mike Dell for some reason, but you could see there was there was a a overlap.

But if I go back and then look at this one here, you know, for the title of today's show, YouTube's AI ad tactics make skipping harder than ever. First, you know, good enough for me for cover art for for YouTube. I'm not as fancy as the majority of people out there. So for me, this was, you know, this just works out well. So, again, I would have had horrible art or no art. Moving in a little more space news. Next week's SpaceX Starship test still needs FAAF authorization.

They wanna go as early as the nineteenth

and I don't know. The week of the nineteenth, but no earlier than May 21. Of course, I'm in London when this goes down. So we'll see, if they get their license or not, but they're still they're still waiting on that. The LA Olympics optimistically names an official air taxi partner. That's kind of funny. Archer's Midnight Evotal still requires FAA approval for any operations, but I guess they will be the official air taxi provider for the twenty twenty eight LA Olympic and Paralympic games.

So but, again, that's a that's a very, very, very, very big if if that's gonna happen. Alright. Scientists have calculated universe is gonna end. Yes. When it's gonna end. It's sooner than you think. But in all honesty, let me give you the number. It's a mind bending 10 to the power of seventy eight years. Ten to the 78 power. So I know that's a one followed by 78 zeros. I don't think any of us have to worry about that. That's unimaginably far into the future.

However, in cosmic terms, this estimate is a dramatic advancement from a previous prediction to the 10 to the power of one thousand one hundred years. So now it's a a little we're we're we're gonna, you know, go dark earlier. Not that any of us will be around for that. Will the human race still exist?

That is a that's a question that's probably in doubt. NASA's punch spacecraft sees a cosmic rainbow in the zodiacal light, whatever that means. NASA's newest spacecraft aimed at studying the sun have captured a colorful rainbow in the warm glow of zodiacal light observed above Earth. Oh, okay. So it's a nice image. I don't know what it fully means. Link will be in the show notes. A dog sized baby dinosaur has been unearthed after a 66,000,000.

So you think about that, 66,000,000, and we're just talking about 10 to the 78 or one to the seventy eighth power or whatever it was. Yeah. That that's that's a relic. A middle Jurassic dinosaur spinned end on earth was the size of a large dog and ate a vegetarian diet. The newly uncovered juvenile from Scottish rocks is making waves among paleontology fans. Skeleton was first no noticed decades ago, but stayed in place due to tricky access along the Isle Of Skye.

But they are able to get it out. So and extract it wherever they're going to take it. The foldable iPhone could become a yearly staple for Apple. What do you guys think about this this foldable iPhone?

Is this is this something that makes you go, yes. I want one immediately? Is is this something you say yes has to go on my list? I'm kinda curious. Do you need do you need more screen? Do you know I wanna carry an iPad, but you just need more screen. And I guess I just don't have enough experience with these things to know if I would want one or not. Because do you have to open it to use the full screen or is another is it is there another screen on the other side of the device?

That's the question. I don't know. I don't know if I need one of these. Wait. What say you? [email protected]. Hey. The next gen CarPlay brand new CarPlay Ultra starts rolling out today. After months of delay, Apple officially announced the launch of the next gen CarPlay. And, let's see. How is it gonna roll out? The big question is the availability. This launch was with was with just Aston Martin.

That's pretty restrictive. Apple announced an expansion of car manufacturer committed to Spartan CarPlay Ultra, includes Hyundai, Kia. Apple also approves the renders of what the next gen CarPlay would look like in Porsche vehicles, which, again, way, way, way, way, way outside my budget. That is for sure. Apparently, the AI Grokbot was ranting about white genocide in South African in a unrelated chat.

Apparently, that kept coming up. They they put a fix in, but, it was basically, sprouting stuff about white genocide in South Africa, which may not be entirely wrong based upon what's coming out of the country. But,

there's definitely political stuff going on down there that is, is interesting. But, I guess they got it under control. Google's iconic excuse me. Google's iconic feeling lucky button is under threat from, yes, AI. Have you ever I haven't used I'm feeling lucky in years. So I understand why they're considering changing it. Some people in some beta tests have seen this. Also, if you use Chrome, Chrome one thirty six update with a patch vulnerability with exploit in the wild.

So make sure when your Chrome browser says upgrade to upgrade. Okay? That's a a very strong recommendation. Again, there's a a a vulnerability in the wild for this. Chinese hackers hit a drone sector in supply chain attacks. So according to the news, dubbed Earth Emit and believed to be chied to Chinese, APTs, a hacking group was seen launching two attack campaigns targeting organizations across multiple sectors to compromise trusted supply chains, but this apparently happened some time ago.

In a fresh report, Trend Micro explains that the campaign occurred prior to they targeted service providers in Taiwan and heavy industry firms in South Korea. So, you you know, this this is a little bit of an old report reported today. I'm sure a lot of techs go unreported for sure. Also, Android auto is getting a big Gemini upgrade soon and also a slightly baffling media control change. So, conversational prompts are coming to the car. Not surprised

whatsoever. In that case, AI is going to inudate everywhere. If you were one of the folks who was affected by a Coinbase cyber attack, you will be able to get a financial refund from Coinbase, and they say this was up to $400,000,000, were moved in crypto based upon,

an email from an unknown threat actor. So email is the vector right now. Be super careful on your email. I'm telling you, most of the attacks that are happening right now via email prompt you to open up a dock. And that dock, you may be not be able to read, but it then says, hey. Go over here and click this. You go you know, here's the additional information. And that's where they get you. Okay? So be careful be careful out there, please. Uber is introducing route share, a rush hour

version of pool. It's also launching new ride passes for users including teens. So, be aware of this route share, which can only be described as if Uber, pool, and buses had a love child. That's kind of a weird explanation, but, you'll be able to save some money there. So those of you that use Uber in the city, maybe this will work out for you. Toyota is bringing the C HR back to US as an all electric crossover. The company's 2026 US EV lineup now includes two models.

And I don't know what this vehicle looks like, to be honest with you. They kinda got a picture in the article, but, I I don't think I've seen one in a while. But, again, Toyota's announced the return of the C HR to The United States, but this time is an all electric model built on its Itang platform. And, the crossover electric bill will be now the second battery electric vehicle sold by k Toyota in The United States. So about a 290 mile range is what that will contain.

And part of its earnings report, Netflix says

its ad tier now has 94,000,000 monthly active subscribers. Said that its cheaper ad supported tier is up to 94,000,000. That's that's amazing. Netflix also says, cheapest tier reaches more eighteen to thirty four year olds than any US broadcaster cable network, which which makes sense. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. This is gonna bring me to the end of the show. Don't forget to get over to geeknetcentral.com. Don't forget to support the podcast by supporting the sponsor.

You can become an insider at geeknesscentral.com forward slash insider with your $2.05, $10.15, 20, or $25 monthly donations. You also can make a single on the show. I definitely appreciate all of your ongoing support of the podcast and your emails and your your boost and everything that's come in. Again, a couple of, weeks of, travel here or at least one week and then a holiday. So, but I appreciate y'all being here. Thanks for staying subscribed.

Thanks for being part of the family, and, we'll see you back here, after

Memorial Day. Everyone, take care. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.