YouTube megastar Jimmy Donaldson, the creator behind the platform’s biggest channel, MrBeast, is worried there are “scary times” ahead for the creator economy as AI video tools make it increasingly difficult to tell what is real.
“When AI videos are just as good as normal videos, I wonder what that will do to YouTube and how it will impact the millions of creators currently making content for a living…scary times,” Donaldson said on X on Sunday.
Donaldson’s concerns come on the heels of OpenAI’s release of a Sora social media platform able to generate short-form AI videos, including of individuals who “upload” themselves onto the app. Meta launched its similar video-generating Vibes platform last month.
Other content creators have spoken out about the ramifications of platforms like Sora. YouTuber Casey Neistat, who has more than 12.6 million subscribers on the site, described the Sora app as a “TikTok clone where every video is AI” in a video on Sunday.
Still, Donaldson hasn’t shied away from dabbling in the technology. In July, Donaldson released a tool providing AI-generated YouTube thumbnail images, but removed the feature about a week later after heavy criticism from other creators. He said he would replace the tool with links to human artists accepting commissions.
“I care more than any of you could ever imagine about the YouTube community,” he said in a video. “It deeply makes me sad when I do something that people in the community are upset by.”
Beast Philanthropy, a nonprofit arm of MrBeast, announced in February a partnership with Light AI, which developed an AI-powered tool to diagnose bacterial infection Group A Streptococcus through a smartphone photo. The partnership will be used to send 10,000 of these tests to African patients.
AI and the creator economy
AI-generated video content has become an increasing concern for online creators. While more than 80% of Instagram content creators said they used AI tools for their content, including generating images and videos, one-third said they had concerns about the quality of the AI-generated content, and 45% said the technology would make it harder for human creators to stand out, according to a 2024 HypeAuditor survey of 620 Instagram influencers.
AI bots have already made their way onto platforms like YouTube, with virtual YouTubers, or VTubers like Bloo, racking up 2.7 million subscribers and more than 700 million video views. According to Jordi van den Bussche, the YouTuber known as kwebbelkop who created Bloo, the character’s videos have brought in millions of dollars in revenue.
In 2023, a Snapchat user created an AI version of herself where more than 1 thousand “boyfriends” pay $1 per minute to converse with their virtual girlfriend. Caryn Marjorie, the creator behind the bot, told Fortune she made $71,610 from one week of beta testing.
Despite some users’ anxiety, not everyone sees AI as a bad thing for content creators. Amjad Hanif, the YouTube head of creator payments and products, told Fortunein 2024 that the technology could help level the playing field among creators who may not have the same resources as Donaldson.
“A lot of the effects—the visual quality, the visual imagery—up until now it’s taken a team of somebody like Jimmy to be able to produce,” Hanif said, referring to Donaldson. “[AI] is going to make that available to a much broader group of creators.”
