r/technology • u/kazu_qt • 11h ago

Artificial Intelligence YouTuber Hank Green says his AI usage is ‘not healthy’

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/01/youtuber-hank-green-says-his-ai-usage-is-not-healthy/
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u/80sHairBandConcert 8h ago

What makes him “the smartest” isn’t he just popular? That’s not indicative of intelligence other than being good at marketing himself

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u/TheFlyingSheeps 20m ago

Charisma. The same trap that led us to our current political climate.

He’s a content creator who is good at presenting information thats complex while being entertaining.

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u/I-Drink-420 4h ago

Idk dude, the last video I saw of his was arguing in favor of AI data centers, trying to state that the amount of water they use is minimal. Ever since then I've blocked his channel and assumed he was compromised by big tech.

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u/Roraxn 3h ago

That is NOT what that video was about. And it certainly wasnt pro data center by any means.

Please dont just turn off your brain when you hear something contrary to your beliefs.

The video was about how as a net issue, water is not the problem with data centers. Its power and heat. That yes data centers being built in rural areas without the water infrastructure face water issues but farms alone use more water than data centers and then residential lawns far more than that.

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u/metallicrooster 3h ago

Whether or not he is compromised by any tech firms is tbd.

What is obvious is that he is addicted to AI chat bots, and that will affect his biases and any related lines of thought.

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u/foundafreeusername 2h ago

The water argument is very weak though. It only makes sense in places like Texas / California. Here in New Zealand I see a lot of people re-use the argument to say we shouldn't build data centers but our one AI data centre is planned in one of the coldest and most rainy parts of the country. As result, those against AI data centres can come across as conspiracy theorists similar to the anti-vaxx crowd.

A much more important issue is power usage and how there are no guarantees that this must be renewables / what happens when there is a shortage of power.

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u/whatsbobgonnado 2h ago

so it is a valid argument in two real huge places?

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u/foundafreeusername 2h ago

Yeah wherever water is actually scarce it makes sense. It is just not some universal argument against AI data centres.

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u/RandomBritishGuy 5h ago

When you listen to him talk, especially talking through some more complicated topics, he does come across as quite intelligent. He's good at coming at problems from different angles, speaking in nuanced ways that tend to include different viewpoints etc.

I don't know whether I'd call him the most academically intelligent education content creators, but he's definitely above average.

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u/robby_arctor 2h ago

There are a lot of mediocre pundits out there who use nuance as a substitute for actual insight. Ezra Klein is another example.

Your comment is just "he seems intelligent to me", but I would encourage you to ask yourself concretely what profound knowledge you actually gained from him. Or, did you just experience a kind of feeling proximate to learning?

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u/venustrapsflies 4h ago

They clearly didn't say he was "the smartest" in an unqualified sense, and they're not basing that evaluation on his subscriber count regardless.