LTT is incredibly corporate (+ a private jet??), Mrwhosetheboss is super AI-pilled (generated “hand painted” wallpaper of him and wife? Really?), Marques has his own controversies (e.g. exceeding highway speeds in a school zone, wallpaper app cashgrab, etc. + he does not seem to have any concept of value or budget), Gamers Nexus has their own problems (e.g. they claimed how Matrix could be Israeli spyware, with the source being a poorly received Reddit comment), etc.
Wendell from Level1Techs is still quite good and relatively out of controversy, perhaps because he doesn’t target a general audience like the above? Veronica Explains (Linux and adjacent topics) and Jeff Geerling (primarily self-hosting and networking bits) are also great in their niches. Salem Techspurts (the greatest technician to ever live) and Hugh Jeffreys both cover topics relating to right to repair and they make interesting videos around vintage electronics as well!
Are there any other good tech creators that are not super corporate, not AI-pilled, and outside of controversy?
Except thumbnail artists exists and can be incredibly meaningful to the success of a video. AI has stolen their work and now directly compete with them. It might be a small part of the whole production of a video, but theft still went in to the box, and less money for the working class comes out.
Don’t call it theft. Theft is what happens when the original owner doesn’t have that thing anymore.
Nothing was “stolen”. AI just lowered the value of generic “thumbnail artists” and probably increased their value as artisans for those willing to pay for a premium service.
That’s what generative AI does: It makes stuff of mediocre quality that’s “good enough” for the masses. However, if you want something better than that, you have to pay a professional.
My hypothesis is that Baumol’s Cost Disease combined with AI is going to result in the collapse of capitalism. Where bespoke service work (e.g. hiring a thumbnail artist) is going to become more expensive over time while generic stuff that doesn’t need to be high quality is going to become cheaper and cheaper, to the point where it’s basically free. We’re almost there, actually.