The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2026
Weedout's $1.99 bet: YouTube's own AI label is the filter users want
A solo macOS Safari extension hiding YouTube's 'Made with AI' videos drew 182 HN points and 82 comments — paid, privacy-clean filtering over detection.
Weedout (masteranza)
What the business is
Weedout is a one-time-purchase ($1.99) Safari extension for macOS 13+ that removes videos YouTube labels 'Made with AI' from home feeds, search, related videos, playlists and Shorts, with an optional auto-skip for labeled Shorts and a dim mode that tags videos for review instead of hiding them. Detection relies entirely on YouTube's disclosure badge; the extension runs locally, caches verdicts on-device and makes no analytics or tracking requests.
How it started
The developer says they built it after AI-generated conspiracy videos took over their own YouTube feed. Going through App Store submission took roughly twice as long as building the extension, which the developer cited as the reason for the $1.99 price; the source is published on GitHub so developers with an Apple Developer profile can inspect, fork and build it locally, with pull requests declined in favor of independent forks.
What happened
The product ships three modes: remove hides labeled videos across feed, search, related, playlists and Shorts; dim fades and tags them so users can verify before trusting it; and optional auto-skip handles labeled Shorts in the Shorts player. Verdicts are cached locally and no account, telemetry or network calls are involved. The HN thread debated whether the 'Made with AI' label is over-inclusive — creators using AI only for cover art or music get hidden too — and under-inclusive, since much unlabeled slop slips through, with one commenter arguing Safari users are more willing to pay for extensions than Chromium users.
How it ended up
As of 2026-09-06 Weedout is live on the Mac App Store at $1.99 with the source published for forking; the developer's stated scope is macOS Safari only, with unlabeled AI content explicitly out of scope for now. No sales or download figures are disclosed.
Background
Weedout is a paid Safari extension for macOS that filters AI-generated content from YouTube by reading YouTube's own 'Made with AI' disclosure badge rather than running detection. Announced on Hacker News on 2026-09-01, the Show HN drew 182 points and 82 comments, and the extension sells on the Mac App Store for $1.99 as a one-time purchase with no subscription and no tracking.
The developer, who posts as masteranza, says they built it after AI-generated conspiracy videos overwhelmed their personal feed. The extension removes labeled videos from home, search, related, playlists and Shorts, can auto-skip labeled Shorts in the player, and offers a dim mode that fades and tags videos for review instead of hiding them. Verdicts cache locally, no account is required and no analytics requests are made.
Weedout's stated design choice is determinism: relying on YouTube's label means no heuristics, no false accusations and no local model, but it also means unlabeled AI content gets through — a limit the developer publishes as an 'honest limit'. The source is public on GitHub for inspection and forking, with pull requests declined to keep forks independent, and the developer has said App Store submission took roughly twice as long as building the extension, which is why it costs $1.99.
The HN discussion captured the product's open question: the 'Made with AI' label is both over-inclusive — creators who used AI for cover art or incidental assets get filtered with full-AI slop — and under-inclusive, since plenty of generated content goes unlabeled. Commenters also debated whether users pay for browser extensions at all, with supporters arguing Safari users are likelier to pay than Chromium users. As of 2026-09-06 the extension is live with no disclosed sales figures.
What has to be true
- YouTube's disclosure requirement gives a free, authoritative signal: filtering on the official label is deterministic and needs no model, no training data and no user data.
- The no-tracking, one-time-purchase model fits the audience: people bothered by AI slop in feeds are also privacy-sensitive, making a subscription or surveillance-based product a non-starter.
- Publishing forkable source answers the trust question for an extension that touches every YouTube page a user visits, and costs the solo developer nothing.
- The honest limit — labeled content only — is a feature in a category full of overpromising AI detectors, and frames what Weedout does not claim to catch.
What can be applied
Use the platform's own signal: consuming YouTube's mandatory AI disclosure makes a filter deterministic and honest about limits, where heuristic detectors invite false accusations and endless tuning.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-06 Weedout is live on the Mac App Store at $1.99, limited to macOS Safari, with source published for independent forks. Sales and download figures are undisclosed, the developer remains anonymous, and the bet rests on an unproven assumption that users will pay for feed curation of AI content rather than tolerate it or switch to free blockers. If YouTube changes how it labels content — or creators stop disclosing to avoid the label — the product's only signal disappears.
Sources
- Show HN: Weedout – Safari extension that hides YouTube AI-labeled videos (182 points, 82 comments)
- Weedout for YouTube — forkable source for a Safari extension that filters videos YouTube labels 'Made with AI'
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