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One of the many problems with machine learning, and using it for recommendations, is that it completely ignores how humans think and behave. Just because I watch a few videos of a certain type today, and actively seek them out, doesn't mean that I want to see similar videos again next week. Maybe I was just in the mood for that type of content today, tomorrow may be something completely different.

That being said, YouTubes recommendation algorithm is mostly garbage. I don't believe it has any insight into the actual content or quality of the videos it recommends.



Anecdotal, but I recently wanted to make bread. I watched 4-5 videos to get the gist of it, made bread, all is good.

Except it's not. About 70-80% of my recommandations on YouTube are about bread now.


Again, anecdotal, but I can't get rid of Bill Buhr recommendations. I've tried numerous times to help YouTube by telling the algorithm that: "No, I don't want to watch Bill Buhr".

But no, he's immune.


We see you recently bought a dishwasher. Here are some ads for more dishwashers.


Right!

YouTube simply knows what you'll find tempting to watch by being just a bit more radical than you currently are, in a spiral.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/youtube-po...

Which is, indeed, garbage...


That's because there is so much variation in what you watch on youtube - from listening to music, to movie trailers, to sports highlights, to howtos about cooking, etc.

The music we listen to is way easier to analyse, even if we have some variation in what we like. Sometimes im in the mood for classical, sometimes its rap. Easy to differentiate and offer me playlists for each genre.




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