However, the mega-star has recently been embroiled in controversy over the launch of a new miniature generator powered by artificial intelligence. This tool, developed in collaboration with analytics platform Viewstats, was promoted in Donaldson’s deleted videos as a way for creators to easily create eye-catching thumbnails, including the option to swap faces and styles with existing popular videos.
YouTube sensation Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, has become the face of the internet video sharing platform. Leading the list of most popular users on the platform, he is followed by over 400 million people who watch his every move. Donaldson’s online videos have made him wealthy, with his business empire valued at $1 billion.
- Donaldson’s decision to launch an artificial intelligence-based tool also comes after YouTube acknowledged using a subset of 20 billion videos on their platform to train an artificial intelligence model for Google Veo 3 video generation
- a fact that could further amplify negative reactions. However, a recent small-scale survey of UK-based YouTube creators shows that up to four out of five creators are already using artificial intelligence, saving nearly eight hours of work each week.
- However, Smiles warns that people should not rush to fear artificial intelligence
- as long as it is used responsibly. “Artificial intelligence is here to stay and can be an excellent tool to elevate creators and enable further democratization of the creative economy,” he says. “I build businesses that utilize it, but I believe it should evolve alongside creators, rather than simply be imposed upon them.”
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“What sparked this wave of negativity is not just the tool itself, but what it represents,” agrees Dom Smiles, co-founder of GloMotion Studios, a digital entertainment studio and long-time voice on YouTube. “When the strongest creator on the platform automates creativity by using the creativity of other creators, it engages someone else. This further underscores the growing gap between mega-creators and everyone else, which requires careful handling, as it is a community above all.”
