I think the "weird AI processing" might have been someone misunderstanding a compression codec. When laypeople see anything advanced, it's always called AI no matter what it actually is, and that's the word that spreads around.

I’m not going to dox my YT channels, but I do know the difference between the two and a year ago YT admitted to automatic AI “enhancements”.

I’ve also seen the trend of TV clip slop using AI filters to I assume get by automatic copyright flagging/removal/de-monetization.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using...