MrBeast Sounds Alarm on AI's Threat to Content Creators

MrBeast says AI could threaten creators' livelihoods, calling it 'scary times' for the industry | TechCrunch

Top YouTube creator MrBeast is worried about AI's impact on creators' livelihoods, despite having dabbled with using the technology himself. On Monday, the creator posted his concerns on social media, where he openly wondered how AI-generated videos could affect the "millions of creators currently making content for a living." "Scary times," he added. MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is No. 1 on Forbes' 2025 list of top creators, with $85 million in earnings and 634 million followers. What he says and does, as a result of his position, has an outsized influence across the industry. So if MrBeast is openly questioning whether AI is an existential threat to his business and others like it, then it's fair to say that smaller creators are likely even more worried. His comments follow the recent launch of OpenAI's Sora 2, a new version of its audio and video generator, alongside a mobile app that lets users create AI, including videos of themselves, which are shared in a TikTok-style vertical feed. The app has been an early hit, quickly hitting No. 1 on the U.S. App Store after a surge of downloads. YouTube itself has also embraced AI, launching things like AI editing tools, including those that let creators generate AI videos using its video model Veo to animate still photos or apply different styles to their videos. The company has infused AI into its product, as well, for things like making clips or highlights from Live videos or podcasts. An AI chatbot can answer creators' questions inside YouTube's channel management software, YouTube Studio. MrBeast has also involved himself with AI, as commenters were quick to point out. The creator this summer faced a fair bit of backlash from fans and creators alike after releasing a tool that used AI to create video thumbnails. He quickly removed the tool from his analytics platform, Viewstats, and said he'd replace it with links to human artists available for commission. His company's philanthropy arm has also made AI investments at times. There is still debate as to whether the novelty of AI video creation will turn everyone into a creator, or if the best videos will still need a human's creative mind to think them up and then prompt the tool correctly. At the same time, there are those who view AI videos as low-quality content, often dubbed "slop," and dislike seeing it in their feeds. Even if the AI becomes undetectable at some point in the future, it's possible that creators revealed to be using it without disclosure could lose their fans' trust and harm their reputation.

MrBeast joins growing list of celebrities warning AI could upend creative work

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. In context: AI-generated videos have advanced significantly in visual quality, with the latest models producing highly convincing, hyper-realistic imagery. Many AI experts, lawmakers, and social media users have raised alarms about their proliferation, expressing concern that these videos could accelerate the spread of fake news and misinformation. YouTube star MrBeast has joined a growing list of prominent figures speaking out against the rapid rise of AI content. In a recent X post, he warned that the surge of AI-generated videos could negatively impact the livelihoods of millions of creators who rely on platforms like YouTube and TikTok to make a living. Describing the trend as "scary times," MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson - said AI's growth could disrupt the social media ecosystem and pose a major challenge for online content producers. The post suggests that Donaldson, like many other creators, views AI as a potential existential threat to the industry. It's worth noting that MrBeast has experimented with AI before, sometimes sparking controversy. Earlier this year, he released a tool that used AI to generate video thumbnails but removed it after backlash from followers and fellow creators. He has also invested in Light AI Health, a company developing AI-based solutions to combat rheumatic heart disease in Africa. Dalliances with AI notwithstanding, MrBeast is echoing the concerns of many prominent actors, filmmakers, musicians, authors, and visual artists who have criticized AI companies for using their creative work to train models without proper licensing. Actors Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Scarlett Johansson; filmmaker Steven Spielberg; horror novelist Stephen King; and musicians Thom Yorke and Billie Eilish are among dozens of celebrities who have raised alarms about AI, warning that it can devalue human performance and threaten jobs. Last week, the Hollywood actors' union SAG-AFTRA expressed outrage over the introduction of AI actress Tilly Norwood, whose creator claimed she could become the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. Describing Norwood as synthetic and soulless, SAG-AFTRA noted that the AI model behind her was trained on the work of human performers without permission or compensation. AI-generated videos are approaching the quality of real-life content, with the latest models, such as OpenAI's Sora 2, producing visuals that are nearly indistinguishable to the naked eye. In response, American AI firms including OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, and Anthropic have added watermarks to AI-generated content to help with identification and to prevent misuse.

MrBeast: AI means it's 'scary times' for YouTube creators

On social media, MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, asked what would happen to people like him "when AI videos are just as good as normal videos". Fears about the impact AI will have on the jobs market are widespread - but particularly acute in the creative industries. In the film and video game industries, there has been extensive industrial action over the use of AI. Those concerns were recently reignited over a headline-making AI actor. However, AI is also being widely used in the same sectors. For example, YouTube offers the use of generative AI for content creators, including generating videos through Google's Veo tool. AI can also be used to auto-generate subtitles or to hone ideas and scripts. Some YouTube videos are fully AI-generated - for example long videos which people might put on to help them go to sleep, says Lars Erik Holmquist, professor of design and innovation at Nottingham Trent University. However, "the general trend of what we're looking at AI as a tool [is] it makes creativity so much cheaper," he says. "I think the people that win in the short term will be just those who use it to create really good content," he adds. For creators like MrBeast, it is unlikely that he will be replaced by AI-generated videos. "His whole idea is to make people do uncomfortable or dangerous things for money - and if it wasn't real, nobody would watch it," says Prof Holmquist. But, given his huge profile, interrupting his usual feed on X - usually promoting his videos - to speak about this is significant. Where AI could be useful to creators like MrBeast is behind the scenes, such as in production or graphics. In fact, he tried that earlier this year - but faced a backlash from other creators when he released an AI tool which generated thumbnails for videos. But other prominent YouTubers pointed out the controversy around what generative AI is trained on - with some arguing it steals copyrighted material without paying the creators. MrBeast removed the tools from his analytics platform and instead provided links to human designers. Veo, Google's AI video generator, is trained on a subset of YouTube videos - though it is not known how many, and whether MrBeast's videos are included in the training data.

Even MrBeast Is Worried About AI Slop

AI slop is everywhere these days. It's in your feeds, it's in your vids, and, lately, it's in the White House. People like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman call that progress. "Creativity could be about to go through a Cambrian explosion, and along with it, the quality of art and entertainment can drastically increase," Altman said, announcing the latest update for OpenAI's AI-video generator Sora on his personal blog. That's nice, Sam, but the majority of us see through this veil of thinly disguised bullshit to the truth: the only thing AI is going to do to art and entertainment is enshittify it. This appears to be a fact that even Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, the viral YouTube star, can appreciate. This week, Donaldson took to social media to share his concerns about the increasing glut of AI-generated content. "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," Donaldson mused on X. He added: "scary times." This is not exactly a stunningly original sociological analysis, but it is interesting coming from someone at the top of a social-media-dominated industry. Donaldson and his kind represent a fundamental subsection of today's creative class. Being an influencer is, for better or worse, one route that young people can take to indulge in creative self-expression these days. That careerâ€"like many othersâ€"may now be under threat from new forms of automation, as AI firms begin to market their services to advertisers and businesses, in an effort to wipe out opportunities for human artists. MrBeast's company was valued at $5 billion earlier this year, but according to Bloomberg, it has "had three years of losses, including more than $110 million in 2024." The problem is that running a viral empire is expensive, and Donaldson reinvests his profits into the content. Overhead for an AI influencer would be a pittance in comparison. So if a media giant like MrBeast can barely keep his head above water while chasing dominance, what chance to the next person following in his footsteps have? Hollywood was also recently spooked by the emergence of a new "AI actress," dubbed Tilly Norwood. Ms. Norwood, a digital creation from a company called Particle6, has made headlines in recent days, despite the fact that she isn't real. At least a few numbskulls in the movie business think she's the next Sydney Sweeney and audiences will soon flock to the theater to drop a hundred dollars for the whole family to enjoy her latest flick. The fact that talent agents are allegedly "interested" in Norwood (is that some sort of joke?) has reportedly made some in the acting community nervous. Nobody should be nervous about Tilly Norwood, however, because nobody in their right mind wants to watch a movie starring an entirely AI-generated character. The whole notion is absurd, and anyone who thinks it's some sort of big business opportunity clearly doesn't understand the fundamental reason people appreciate art. The reason is this: it's human. Yes, art is about connecting with other people through ideas and emotion. It's not about appreciating the images an algorithm generated. So, while the concern about AI's infiltration into the arts is understandable, it also shows that consumers fundamentally don't want what AI companies are trying to sell. Whatever you think of the quality of MrBeast's content, it is primarily focused on putting real human beings in extreme circumstances as they try to win life-changing sums of money. That's drama that AI can't recreate, no matter how many GPUs Sam Altman buys.

'Scary times': Youtube's biggest star MrBeast fears AI could impact 'millions of creators' after Sora launch | Fortune

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 AI generated short-form 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-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 more than millions of dollars in revenue. Despite some users' anxiety, not everyone sees AI as a bad thing for content creators. Amjad Hanif, the YouTube executive at the head of creator payments and products, told Fortune in 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."

MrBeast Says AI Videos Create 'Scary Times' for 'Millions of Creators' on YouTube

MrBeast is questioning what happens to YouTubers when AI videos become "just as good" as human-created ones. MrBeast, the world's top YouTuber with more than 443 million subscribers, is worried about what will happen to his fellow YouTube creators when it becomes impossible to tell AI-generated videos apart from human-created ones. In a post on X on Sunday, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, said AI videos have created "scary times" for content creators. As AI technology advances, it carries the potential to affect "millions of creators" who depend on YouTube to make a living, he said. Related: YouTuber MrBeast Makes More Money From This 'Sweet' Side Hustle Than From His Videos "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," Donaldson wrote in the post, which had 5.8 million views at the time of writing. "Scary times." Donaldson's concern arises as AI-created videos gain popularity. Last week, OpenAI released the Sora 2 app, which looks like TikTok but is exclusively for AI videos. Users can generate 10-second clips with just a text prompt. By Friday, even though the app was invite-only, Sora had climbed to No. 1 on Apple's App Store. AI videos could pose fresh competition for the millions of creators who run active YouTube channels. Social Blade, a social media statistics site, currently estimates that there are over 68 million active YouTube channels worldwide. Donaldson amassed a following on YouTube by posting popular videos like "World's Most Expensive Flights" and "Last to Leave Circle Wins $500,000" (each video has over 500 million views at the time of writing). He gained popularity for his viral, high-budget challenges and high-stakes giveaways. His influence also extends beyond YouTube: Last year, Donaldson worked with Amazon Prime Video to create the reality competition series "Beast Games." The show, which aired the final episode of its first season on February 13, was the biggest unscripted show ever for Amazon, with 50 million viewers in its first 25 days. Amazon announced in May that it had renewed "Beast Games" for two additional seasons.