Sponsored by RockWater

The brand of AI is complex.

Talk to Silicon Valley nerds and this technology is going to be an evolution of culture and society on par with the industrial revolution or the internet.

Talk to your average internet nerd and it’s a environment-killing, mediocrity-machine that’s going to make us all jobless and, possibly, end the world.

And MrBeast saw the latter first-hand when his AI thumbnail generator sparked so much backlash that he had to take it down.

So where does creator AI go from here?

Also in this edition:

• Are You Already Producing a Podcast?

• TikTok and Meta Take on TV

• Live Fan Clubs on TikTok

• Gushcloud Picks Up Wizdeo

• Job ops from TikTok, Fanfix, and Pearpop.

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

AI, Aye, Aye…

Is AI doomed to horrible customer backlash like NFTs and the metaverse?

That question started to pop up this week as MrBeast had to pull his new AI thumbnail product.

In fairness, a lot of the backlash was about the pricing. $80 per month feels like a lot for one feature that can be accomplished relatively well with a $20 per month ChatGPT subscription.

But scrolling through the comments, there were a myriad issues popping up: the environmental impact of AI, how all art is going to feel the same in the future, the loss of jobs for YouTuber support staff, and, of course, the already-existing problem of every major YouTuber making thumbnails that look annoyingly like MrBeast’s.

I’m not going to recap the winners and losers thus far in creator AI, but most don’t seem to be thriving.

At least not for professional creators. I see lots of folks having fun with VEO 3 and Midjourney and songs on Suno.

So we should do some soul-searching here: is the brand of AI ruined within the creator, and, furthermore, the artistic community?

It’s complex, but everyone working in AI or the creator economy need to be crystal-clear on the following:

AI is taking jobs: If you get beat up by Mark Hamill, you’re probably not going to be a Star Wars fan. And if you are downsized because of AI efficiencies, you’ll probably be a bit sensitive to anything involving AI. For all of those still repeating the lie that “AI is going to create more jobs than it will cost,” please stop it. It’s simply not true. AI is going to allow companies to do what they do already far more cheaply, then they’ll get to decide if they’ll re-invest that money into the company. What history has taught us: they billionaire class is all going to get fat raises instead.

AI content is bad: When looked at purely through the lens of ‘Oh wow! It only took 20 seconds to make this video?’ AI is impressive. But it’s not good. When I see a voice-over true crime story with the terrible wooden AI narrator on my FYP, I’m immediately turned off. AI can be an enabler of great content. As a tool, AI can create some pretty great stuff. I thought the Kalshi ad was pretty cool. But there’s so much low-effort slop out there that AI is giving itself a bad name.

AI is bad for the environment: This is a hard one to deny. There hasn’t been a legitimate study that’s proven otherwise, and some even say it will be the largest contributor to CO2 in the atmosphere within the next 10 years. I have heard the argument that AI is going to advance technology so fast that it can help solve some pollution problems in real-time, but that’s putting the robo-cart before the cyber-horse. Why don’t we figure out how to keep LA from burning down every year, then build AI data centers all over the world?

Okay, if we all agree on those things, we can have a real conversation.

The truth is that creators are artists. Full stop. They’re using their creative brains to make a ‘thing’.

And AI hit the market as a replacement for creative work, be it pictures or movie scripts or videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti.

AI is competition, and every creator knows it.

However, functional AI that solves a real problem, a real, honest-to-God pain point has never had backlash.

I’ve been using Opus Clip for its entire 2 years of existence and I’ve never heard one bad thing about the company.

Because it isn’t trying to be the artist.

It’s solving a few very annoying, manual issues: finding a clip within a long piece of content that can stand alone on short form platforms, making a horizontal video vertical, and writing captions.

And in the Kalshi example, there was still environmental complaints online, but I think most realized that this was a comedy piece that was able to put people in weird situations and tell a story because of the magic of AI. You could still feel the hand of the creative storyteller behind the piece.

In other words, as long as an artist is still firmly in control, I think AI will continue to grow within the market.

But I still don’t think AI has fully arrived until it can do my taxes (anyone?….anyone?….)

SPONSORED BY ROCKWATER

RockWater provides specialized M&A advisory for digital agency owners. TLDR: we find buyers to acquire your agency and negotiate the best deal possible for you.

We're trusted by leading creator economy agencies including: Long Haul Mgmt (sold to Wasserman), Bottle Rocket Mgmt (sold to Night), Oxford Road (sold to Insignia), Fixated ($10M capital raise), Bounty (sold to gen.video), The Creator Society (merger between 2 Social and Ensemble), and many more names you'd recognize. 

If you're interested to learn more about what your agency is worth, reach out to [email protected] to set up an introductory call.

We also host premium exec networking events in NYC + LA. Fill out your details here to be included on the list.

GROW 1%:

Phil Ranta’s weekly social media growth newsletter with one actionable tip to grow.

This week’s ‘Grow 1%’ is titled Anything Can Be a Podcast and discusses how to start a podcast incorporating what you’re already doing in your day-to-day.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the entire edition in the link above:

I started a podcast network in 2011 called Comedy Podcast Network.

We rolled up a ton of shows under one banner, manually coded RSS feeds, hosted files on our .com domain, and had editors and tech directors ensure the final audio was perfect.

And based on my lack of a four-story mansion in the hills, you can probably guess that we were a bit too early.

Too much work, not enough revenue.

Luckily, it's not 2011 anymore.

There are free podcast services that allow you to record, edit, distribute across audio and video platforms, create branded assets, and even manage audience engagement.

There's libsyn and Soundcloud and Spotify for Creators and Podbean and Buzzsprout and Simplecast and probably a million more I'm not thinking of.

Even YouTube has the ability to create podcast playlists.

So if you're creating anything of quality, or even just have conversations in the course of your day that are interesting, nearly anyone can have a podcast.

I'll give you three examples:

Continue reading here.

FAME & FORTUNE:

TikTok and Meta are feeling a bit jealous about YouTube’s television success and both plan to launch new television apps in the near future. Those of you that are as wonky as me may point out that TikTok and Facebook Watch already have/had plays on television-first devices, but maybe this time it won’t look like an afterthought.

TikTok has announced ‘LIVE Fan Clubs’ as they continue to find huge success with their live product. Much like Twitch, subscribed fans will get access to badges, private chat rooms, and spotlights when joining lives.

Let the creator economy rollup continue! International creator agency Gushcloud bought the French MCN darling Wizdeo which now makes it a $1b creator business. Definitely not the last as the buying spree continues!

AI company Anthropic has launched an AI tool to track the economic fallout from AI. Talk about an AI-roboros!

INDUSTRY HIRING:

TikTok needs a Creator Manager (news) who is passionate about discussions with creators about the difference between ‘NEWS’ and ‘News?’

Fanfix is looking for an Creator Partnerships Manager but if you want to answer in the interview it’s $5 per question.

Pearpop wants an Director of Talent, Creator Management, and if you’re outside of Michigan make sure you call the company ‘Pear Soda’.

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.