I abhor clickbait. This distaste is accompanied closely by lack of brevity. If it truly is the soul of wit, in the age of website sticky metrics, wit is seldom found. The amount of lengthy YouTube videos created of incredibly little substance is such a time-suck. What can we do, dear reader? I found the antidote.
Thanks to our friends at Big G, their Gemini model integrates directly with Google-owned YouTube and provides an excellent summary of any video with a simple prompt:
@YouTube summarize this video:
<link>Here's an example I used recently. This video is titled "Why You'll WASTE the Next 3 Years...". A title meant to hit us right in our panic bone. Reflexively though, I'm turned off. I enjoy this creator's content. I even enjoy the technologist / philosopher he seems likely to discuss here - Naval Ravikant. But does that mean I should bless him with the next 6 minutes of my life? Gemini helps us peak behind the curtain.
Thanks to Gemini, I learn that this is video is a plea to define a goal, plan how to get there, and make the sacrifices necessary to reach it. Great advice. If I'm feeling void of inspiration, I'd likely give it a view.
Amongst all of the understandable fear about the future of AI and it's impact on society, it was nice to find a use case that I would call unequivocally beneficial. We now have SparkNotes for video. What a time to be alive.
Clickbait will unfortunately always be effective, but hopefully a little awareness combined with tools such as this, will force content creators to index further on quality and less on grabby headlines.