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My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)

60 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
Cited on HN 4 times, 2023–2024, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Linked as an example of the honest, self-aware way Tom Scott treats VPN ads and their legitimate use cases.

Tom Scott shows a robot double of himself, built from an Engineered Arts Mesmer robot, delivering a VPN advertisement in his place.

3 citations · 1 critical · Comedy · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@throw0101b Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread NordVPN library and client code open-sourced
This reminds me of the 'original' 2019 video by Tom Scott called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless: * [link] And then a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) which was sponsored by NordVPN: * [this video]
Tom Scott's follow-up on legitimate VPN use cases
@throw0101b Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread NordVPN library and client code open-sourced
> [link] This is Tom Scott's 'original' 2019 video called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless. However a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) in which he was sponsored by NordVPN: * [this video]
Tom Scott's follow-up on legitimate VPN use cases
@throw0101a Oct 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Post World War II Food
> Given the amount of advertising for vpns you might think they are a scam. Tom Scott did a video in 2019 entitled "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains why a lot of the ad copy at that time was often misleading, and why he didn't take money from them: * [link] In 2022 he made video with an ad read from a VPN provider with more honest claims about their use cases: * [this video]
Tom Scott's ad read with more honest VPN claims

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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