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.
