A ‘true crime’ YouTube channel’s videos got millions of views. It turns out the stories were AI-generated

A popular “true crime” YouTube channel has been pulling in millions of views with videos about gruesome murders. As it turns out, None of them are real.

One of those videos, titled “Husband’s Secret Gay Love Affair with Step Son Ends in Grisly Murder,” claimed to detail a gruesome crime in Littleton, Colorado. After it amassed nearly two million views, viewers reached out to local reporter Elizabeth Hernandez. But there was no record of the crime—because it never happened. The murder was entirely fabricated by a YouTube channel called True Crime Case Files that used ChatGPT and AI-generated imagery.

According to 404 Media’s Henry Larson, over 150 similar videos had been uploaded to the channel in the past year, each racking up tens of thousands of views. Other videos carried titles like “Wife Secret Affair with Neighbor’s Teenage Daughter Ends in Grisly Murder” and “Coach Gives Cheerleader HIV after Secret Affair, Leading to Pregnancy.” Hernandez contacted the police about the fake crime videos and the channel was deactivated earlier this year.

Paul (a pseudonym created by 404 Media to protect his identity) told Larson that he created the fake “true” crime news to make viewers question why they were so interested in such salacious acts. While his methods are dubious at best, the question itself stands. More than half of all Americans say they consume some form of true crime, with Crime Junkie and Dateline NBC (the original inspiration behind Paul’s videos) both among Apple’s 10 most popular podcasts of 2024.

“I’m trying to overdose the viewer on luridness, to try to confront them with the fact that they seem to be so invested in the luridness of it all,” Paul told Larson, defending his AI-generated work. “People’s secret lives, their secret affairs that are really taboo.”

The videos were popular and lucrative enough that Paul was able to work on them full time. Before his account was made unavailable, he would create up to two videos a week, each taking around 2.5 hours to finish. A YouTube spokesperson told 404 Media, “We terminated the channel in question for multiple violations of our Community Guidelines, including our policies covering child safety that prohibit the sexualization of minors.”

However, Paul still defends his videos. “True crime […] at the end of the day, it’s a form of entertainment. Viewers are watching this not to be informed about things that will affect them personally,” he told Larson. “They’re really just there to be entertained and to have a thrilling mystery with some lurid elements.”