Good morning. I recently came across a ChatGPT detector for professors to catch students using the AI tool to do their schoolwork. Though I’m not a teacher, I am nosy, and this is a fun way to plug in text (articles, essays, anything) to see if it registers as AI. Keep scrolling to get the link.

–Hannah Doyle

Study Hall Gets Fully Accredited

The YouTube channel made in partnership with the Green Brothers and Arizona State University now offers courses that can earn students college credits. 

Context: Study Hall started in 2020 as a collaborative channel designed to offer students/subscribers college-level education for free through its Crash Course video series. 

What’s different now that Study Hall is accredited? The courses are good for college credit that can transfer to any institution that accepts transfer credits from ASU. 

How it works:

• Students can watch course content on Study Hall’s YouTube channel for free. They can then pay $25 to sign up for an online course with classmates and faculty.

• After completing the seven-week course, students can decide if they’d like to record the grade and receive college credit, which costs $400.

• At launch, Study Hall is offering courses in English Composition, U.S. History, College Math, and Human Communication. 

Big picture: Transitioning from a free educational model to a paid one is a big step for the Green brothers and their Crash Course brand. It’s a move toward the continued legitimization of online education that could be the start of a fully accredited Crash Course University.

Zoom out: YouTube has been making strategic moves in the education space over the last year, including debuting plans to launch a Courses feature that lets creators offer video courses behind paywalls. It also introduced a “Player for Education” tool that removes ads, external links, and recommendations from videos.

What's the Deal with TikTok's Heating Button?

TikTok employees can manually control what goes viral on the platform via a “heating button,” according to recent reports.

Context: Most platforms engage in "heating" of some kind that amplifies certain content. Even YouTube’s trending page isn’t purely algorithm-driven, but most platforms usually disclose when they're manually intervening.

Here’s what’s going on at TikTok, according to current and former employees who spoke to Forbes:

• TikTok uses heating to court influencers and brands with inflated view counts.

• Heated videos account for around 1–2% of daily total video views, “which can have a significant impact on overall core metrics,” according to TikTok’s internal Heating Playbook.

What it means for creators: TikTok’s FYP has a reputation for being a tool of democratization—anyone can get in front of the right audience with a super smart algorithm. These heating allegations suggest that 1) the algorithm might not be as objective as we thought and 2) some creators’ SEO and content strategies might have limited impact.

Big picture: TikTok is already fending off threats for an outright ban in the U.S. Allegations of algorithmic tampering won’t earn TikTok many fans, especially among the legislators responsible for regulating the platform.

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YouTuber's Ad Revenue Buoyed by Back Catalog

Adventure filmmaker Levi Allen got the largest YouTube paycheck of his life this month, despite having lower than average views on uploads. 

It’s all because of his back catalog. 

By the Numbers:

7.1 million → how many video views his channel received last year, despite averaging 5,000–10,000 views per video on his 19 uploads in 2022.

$5,200 Canadian → how much YouTube paid Allen for the month of December 2022.

Big picture: Building a quality content library over time might not have an immediate payoff, but creators playing the long game know that the hits can sustain a business even years after they press publish.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Louis Theroux produced a documentary on KSI, now on Amazon.

• Ludwig becomes a co-owner of Moist, an esports organization.

• Taylor Made signs ex-Good Good Golf members Grant and Micah.

• This tool lets you see if text was written by ChatGPT.

• Samantha Jo brings a unique editing style to what-I-eat-in-a-day videos.

• iDubbbz is hosting another Creator Clash.

• Colin and Samir reveal how much they made on YouTube in 2022.

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