Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video
MrBeast, the world’s top YouTuber, is shutting down an AI thumbnail generator he released last week after receiving heavy criticism from the creator community.
The feature allowed users to generate video thumbnails by mimicking aspects of existing video art, including swapping in faces and other modifications.
“You’ve made something that can steal my (and my artists) hard work without a thought,” Twitch and YouTube streamer PointCrow (Eric Morino) wrote on X.
Now, MrBeast is backpedaling. In a video posted Thursday, he said he’s killing the AI feature and instead directing users of his Viewstats platform to hire human designers.
“I care more than any of you could ever imagine about the YouTube community,” he said. “It deeply makes me sad when I do something that people in the community are upset by.”
The backlash to MrBeast’s tool shows the tightrope walk that companies must navigate when introducing AI features for creators. There’s a fine line between automating work to help influencers save time, and offering shortcuts that creators view as displacing or stealing their work.
AI is coming hard for creators
MrBeast’s thumbnail generator is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to disruptive AI tech hitting the creator community. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are all marching forward with AI tools that will change how videos are made, and what ultimately gets watched. And I’d wager they’re going to be less receptive than MrBeast to backlash.
TikTok users can now turn static photos into AI-generated videos, and YouTube is planning to bring its AI video generator tool Veo 3 to Shorts this summer. If Veo 3 is good enough to produce a TV commercial, it’s likely to make a big splash on YouTube. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said earlier this month that he’s “incredibly excited by the potential of AI tools to empower human creativity.”
You’d be hard pressed to find a creator platform that’s not getting overrun with AI these days. Pinterest users are finding AI images are taking over their grid, and music streamer Deezer recently revealed that 18% of all new songs uploaded to its platform are fully AI-generated. There’s even a wave of startups helping users automate the entire process of creating and uploading videos to TikTok.
Creators can rage against MrBeast, but the biggest players in generative AI are racing ahead. Even as MrBeast has shuttered his short-lived AI thumbnail generator, it’s still incredibly easy for creators to generate thumbnails using other AI tools from the likes of OpenAI and Midjourney.
MrBeast described his AI thumbnail tool at launch as “the future of YouTube thumbnails” in a since-deleted video. He was probably right.
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