One of the most popular gaming YouTubers is named Bloo, with bright blue wavy hair and dark blue eyes. But he is not human – he is a complete virtual personality with artificial intelligence.
“I'm here to entertain millions of viewers around the world and come back for more,” Bloo said in an interview with CNBC. “I'm all about good vibes and engaging content. I'm built by humans, but boosted by AI.”
Bloo is a virtual YouTuber or Vtuber who has built a massive supporter of 2.5 million subscribers and over 700 million viewers through videos playing popular games such as Grand Theft Auto, Roblox, and Minecraft. The Vtubers were the first to gain traction in Japan in the 2010s. Now, with advances in AI, it's easier than ever to create Vtubers and fuel new waves of virtual creators on YouTube.
The virtual character whose bright colors and 3D physique look like Pixar film and video game Fortnite was created by longtime YouTuber Jordi Van Den Bussche, also known as Kwebebelkop. Van Den Bussche created the Bloo after realising that he couldn't keep up with the request to create content. The work no longer matches the output.
“After all, the flaws in this equation are human, so we need to somehow get rid of them,” 29-year-old Van den Baschet, from Amsterdam, said in an interview. “The only logical way was to replace humans. Either a photorealistic person or a cartoon. Vtubers were the only option, and that's where Bloo was born. ”
Jordi van den Baschet, YouTuber, is known as KWebbelkop.
Courtesy: Jordi van den Basschet
According to Van Den Bussche, Bloo has already generated more than seven revenue figures. Many Vtubers like Bloo are “puppet-shaped” where humans use motion capture or face tracking technology to control the voice and movement of their characters in real time. From video thumbnails to audio dubbing in other languages, everything else is handled by Openai's ChatGpt and ElevenLabs' AI technology. Google's Gemini and the Claude of Mankind. Van Den Bussche's long-term goal is that Bloo's personality and the entire content creation process will be carried out by AI.
Van Den Bussche has already tested videos that are fully AI-generated on Bloo's channel, but says the results are not yet promising. Content doesn't work as well, he said, because AI still lacks human intuition and creative instincts.
“When AI can be better, faster or cheaper than humans, it's when it's time to start using it forever,” Van den Baschet said.
The technology may not be that far away.
Startup Hedra offers products that use AI technology to generate videos for up to 5 minutes. We raised $32 million in the funding round in May It will be led by Andreessen Horowitz's Infrastructure Fund.
Hedra's product Character-3 allows users to create AI-generated characters for videos, adding dialogue and other characteristics. CEO Michael Lingelbach said CNBC Hedra is working on a product that allows users to create independent, fully automated characters.
Hedra's product character 3 allows users to create AI-powered numbers that can be animated in real time.
Hedora
“We've done a lot of research to accelerate models like Character 3 in real time, which would really suit VTubers,” says Lingelbach.
Charache-3's technology has already been used by many creators experimenting with new formats, and many of its projects have gone viral. One of them is comedian Jon Lajoie's Talking Baby Podcast. The other is Mirasophia, a virtual singer and artist.
Talk about baby podcasts
Source: Instagram | Talk about Baby Podcasts
These creators use Character 3 to create outstanding content on social media, allowing them to reach a wide audience without the cost and complexity of traditional productions.
AI-generated videos are a rapidly evolving technology that reconstructs the way content is created, making it easier than ever to create high-quality videos without cameras, actors, or editing software. In May, Google announced VEO 3. Veo3 has announced a tool to create Ai-Generated video with audio.
Google said it is training VEO 3 using a subset of YouTube content, CNBC reported in June. Many creators said they were unaware of the training, but experts said it could create an intellectual property crisis on the platform.
Faceless AI YouTubers
Creators are increasingly finding profitable ways to leverage the generator AI technology led by Openai's launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.
One of the growing trends is the rise in faceless AI channels. These are performed by creators who use these tools to create videos with artificially generated images and narration.
“My goal is to expand up to 50 channels, but it's getting harder because of the way YouTube handles new channels and trust scores,” says Golden Hand, a Spanish-based creator who refused to share his real name.
Golden Hand said it is working with a small team to release up to 80 videos per day across the channel's network. Some people maintain a stable thousands of viewers per video, while others suddenly go viral, with millions of viewers having millions of viewers.
Golden Hand said his content was audio-driven storytelling. He describes YouTube videos as audiobooks combined with AI-generated images and subtitles. Everything after the first idea is created entirely by AI.
He recently launched a new platform, Tubechef. This allows creators to access their systems and automatically generate faceless AI videos starting at $18 a month.
“People think using AI means you're less creative, but I feel more creative than ever,” he said. “It's no joke to come up with ideas for 60 to 80 viral video a day. The idea is where all the effort goes right now.”
AI Slop
As AI-generated content becomes more common online, concerns are growing about its impact. Some users are worried about the spread of misinformation, especially as it makes it easier to generate persuasive but fully AI-made videos.
“Even if content is useful and someone might find it interesting or useful, we feel… there's no way to understand what humans have made and what they don't,” said Henry Ajder, founder of Latent Space Advisory, which helps you navigate the AI landscape.
Others are frustrated with the huge amount of low-efforded AI content flooding the feed. This type of material is often referred to as low-quality, randomly generated content created using artificial intelligence.
Google DeepMind VEO 3.
Courtesy: Google Deepmind
“Slop age is inevitable,” said Ajder, an AI policy advisor. Metaowns Facebook and Instagram. “I don't know what we're doing about it.”
It's not new, but this type of content surge has led to a growing criticism from users who say it's difficult to find meaningful or original material, especially on apps such as Tiktok, YouTube, Instagram.
“I'm actually very tired of AI slops,” said one user of X.
However, the creator of this AI content tells CNBC that it comes down to supply and demand. As AI-generated content continues to get clicks, Noah Morris, creator with more YouTube channels, has no reason to stop creating more of it.
Some people argue that AI videos still have inherent artistic value, but creating is much easier, but there is always Slop-like content on the internet, Lingelbach said.
“There was no barrier to people who made content that wasn't interesting,” he said. “Now we have more opportunities to create different kinds of content that we don't care about, but we're also creating more interesting content.”
