ExtinctZoo - This Show May Not Exist In 3 Years

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

https://patreon.com/extinctzooHold Onto Your Butts!

I'm a little bit of my home. I'm a half a little. Hey everyone, my name is Xxing Zoo. Just kidding. My name is Sebastian. And this guy's my brother. And where are the two people behind Xting Zoo? Now, I know we don't share a lot about my personal life on here,

but one thing you can probably gather for my videos is that I'm a big, big dork, especially when it comes to dinosaurs and paleontology. I mean, I've pretty much always been into this stuff since I was pretty much an infant. But after I watched Jurassic Park, walking with dinosaurs and played Operation Genesis as a kid, it was game over. Pun, absolutely intended.

And since those fateful days so many years ago, I have not been able to stop thinking about them. Seriously, for parts of my life it was bordering on a problem, mainly because it wasn't great for making friends. And I often felt like probably some of you maybe have, which is that I didn't have anyone around to share my enthusiasm about the recent, somewhat useless fact I learned, such as a T-Rex's bicep curling abilities. were to ponder the universe's deepest, most important questions, like, how long did dinosaurs actually survive the asteroid? Very important. So, sometime over a thousand days ago,

we, my brother and I, started this channel to answer those oh so important questions, and honestly, just for fun as well. And to my genuine surprise, more people were into this than I ever thought. And thanks to you all, we managed to grow the channel to larger than I ever would have believed possible, which I can safely say is a dream come true.

And honestly, it still doesn't feel real even now. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for watching, tuning in, and for all of your support. Now, mostly feelings aside, as you all know, the world is changing. In the past few years, and this year especially, we've seen unprecedented advances in AI, which is exciting and is allowed for some really cool things, like this nigh-perfect video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, but along with that have come many side effects, so to say. And the biggest one, for not only us as creators, but also us as viewers, because yes, I love watching videos as well, is the explosion in AI content.

To be clear, before I have any naysayers in here, I do not have a problem with AI in general. It can be incredibly useful, and is in arguably the future, but when it's not used as a tool, but rather as a replacement for the human creativity process, turning out to mass-produced content that's unimaginable speeds, that's where I draw the line. Now, I could speak at length as to why this is a problem,

but I think this Kurzwezgissau video sums it up nicely. And unfortunately, when it comes to educational niches, and paleontology specifically, it seems that we're quite affected by this. And while these AI videos and copycats are rarely go viral, the sheer volume, hundreds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of AI channels, stealing a remake and content and spitting out videos, sometimes multiple times per day, means the amount of possible times a real creator will show in your feed has dropped dramatically. What's even crazier is that YouTube literally has a feature for creators where it shows videos that it believes might quote unquote inspire us. And in the past, this would generally show paleo creators, our peers and other people that generally make very good videos. And yet now the rise in AI videos has gotten so bad, the YouTube's own features are showing us our videos

rewritten by AI channels. Okay, rant over. Thankfully, thanks to all of you who continue to watch our videos, we have not been as heavily impacted as some other creators I know of and have spoken to. But we have still felt the effects, making me worry a bit about the long-term future of Exing Zoo, as we try to incorporate accuracy, effort, and, in my opinion, importantly, human touch, over mass production. And so with a changing ecology, it can kind of sometimes feel that we might be left out. in a sense. By that said, I've always been taught that one ounce prevention is worth a pound of cure. Instead of that end, I have an announcement, which I'm actually really excited about. And that is

that we are launching a Patreon. To be honest, we didn't really focus on this in the past because I wasn't exactly sure what value we could really offer in exchange for your support. And if I'm asking you for your money, I really do want to make it feel special and meaningful. But now, I think I do. And so to that end, let me say two words. Paleoart and fossils. Kind of. So, five words? For the past few months, I've been working with a very talented person to create a fossil-accurate necklace pendant, which is based on the T-Rex's older Asian brother, the Tarbosaurus, which, by the way, we do have a video on. And this is not something we're selling, but rather something we're offering as a Patreon reward.

And you'll have two different options, one made of sterling silver, and the other made of a polished bronze, which looks, in my opinion, nearly like gold. And it's all produced by actual jewelers in America and Mexico. So, no AI jewelers. Just kidding. The next thing we've done is create what is, in my opinion, our coolest poster yet. And so without further ado, let me introduce you to the periodic table of Mesozoic reptiles, which the legendary paleo artist Nobutamura graciously let us use for the animal's depictions.

And just like the necklace, this will be free, shipping not included, for patrons of a certain tier. And I mean, look at this! Your walls will probably cry with happiness, because I know I would. And then finally, we also have a limited tier where patrons were able to commission paleo art from our artist. Now, because this is all handmade, there are only 15 slots for this. So this is more of a, if you really love the channel and have the means to support us type of thing. And it also obviously includes all the previous bonuses I talked about. Then on top of all of that, we have the typical Patreon benefits, ad-free videos, voting for video topics.

So if you ever wanted to help decide the next video, here's your chance. And then bonus long compilations for your uninterrupted listening desires and maximizing your dino brain, which, by the way, 9 out of 10 doctors highly recommend for countering brain rot. That's a joke, by the way. and more stuff. And most importantly, I want this Patreon to be the first step in creating a community off of YouTube. That is essentially a real place for people, which is something I never thought I'd have to say, where we can at least be somewhat confident that the people behind the screens have fingers or maybe claws.

And also, of course, your support will guarantee that we can keep making videos about paleontology, animals, our planet's history, and more. At least until the next asteroid strikes Earth, that is. So honestly, I'm super excited to launch this and see what you guys think. and again to have a community where we can all interact more freely and personally than on YouTube. So if you want to support the channel and get some awesome things, please consider checking out the Patreon, and together we can keep paleo content made by dynos,

or, I mean, humans, for humans. And until next time, on Extinctu, and hopefully on Patreon.