AI virtual personality YouTubers, or 'VTubers,' are earning millions

One of the most gaming YouTubers is named Bloo, but he isn't a human — he's a VTuber, a fully virtual personality powered by artificial intelligence

Now, advances in AI are making it easier than ever to create VTubers, fueling a new wave of virtual creators on YouTube

As AI-generated content becomes more common online, concerns its impact are growing, especially as it becomes easier to generate convincing but entirely AI-fabricated s

One of the most gaming YouTubers is named Bloo and has bright blue wavy hair and dark blue eyes

But he isn't a human — he's a fully virtual personality powered by artificial intelligence. "I'm here to keep my millions of viewers worldwide entertained and coming back for more," Bloo said in an interview with CNBC. "I'm all 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 ing of 2. 5 million rs and more than 700 million views through s of him playing games Grand Theft Auto, Roblox and Minecraft

Now, advances in AI are making it easier than ever to create VTubers, fueling a new wave of virtual creators on YouTube

The virtual character — whose bright colors and 3D physique look something out of a Pixar film or the game Fortnite — was created by Jordi van den Bussche, a longtime YouTuber also known as kwebbelkop

Van den Bussche, a 29-year-old who s in Amsterdam, said he created Bloo after finding himself unable to keep up with the demands of content creation

The work no longer matched the output. "Turns out, the flaw in this equation is the human, so we need to somehow remove the human," van den Bussche said in an interview. "The only logical way was to replace the human with either a photorealistic person or a cartoon

The VTuber was the only option, and that's where Bloo came from. "Jordi Van Den Bussche, YouTuber known as Kwebbelkop

Courtesy: Jordi Van Den BusscheBloo has already generated more than seven figures in revenue, according to van den Bussche

Many VTubers such as Bloo are "puppeteered," meaning a human controls the character's voice and movements in real time using motion capture or face-tracking nology

Everything else on Bloo's channel, from thumbnails to voice dubbing in other languages, is handled by AI nology from ElevenLabs, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude

Van den Bussche's long-term goal is for Bloo's entire personality and content creation cess to be run by AI

Van den Bussche has already tested fully AI-generated s on Bloo's channel but said the results have not yet been mising

The content doesn't perform as well because the AI still lacks the intuition and creative instincts of a human, he said. "When AI can do it better, faster or cheaper than humans, that's when we'll start using it permanently," van den Bussche said

The nology might not be far away

Startup Hedra offers a duct that uses AI nology to generate s that are up to five minutes long

Hedra's duct, Character-3, allows users to create AI-generated characters for s and can add dialogue and other characteristics

CEO Michael Lingelbach told CNBC that Hedra is working on a duct that will allow users to create self-sustaining, fully automated characters

Hedra's duct Character-3 allows users to make figures powered by AI that can be animated in real-time

Hedra"We're doing a lot of re accelerating models Character-3 to real time, and that's going to be a really good fit for VTubers," Lingelbach said

Character-3's nology is already being used by a growing number of creators who are experimenting with new formats, and many of their jects are going viral

One of those is comedian Jon Lajoie's Talking Baby Podcast, which features a hyper-realistic animated baby talking into a microphone

Another is Milla Sofia, a virtual singer and artist whose AI-generated music s attract thousands of views

Talking Baby ource: Instagram | Talking Baby PodcastThese creators are using Character-3 to duce content that stands out on social media, helping them reach wide audiences without the cost and complexity of traditional duction

AI-generated is a rapidly evolving nology that is reshaping how content is made and d online, making it easier than ever to duce high-quality without cameras, actors or editing software

In May, Google announced Veo 3, a tool that creates AI-generated s with audio

Google said it uses a subset of YouTube content to train Veo 3, CNBC reported in June

While many creators said they were unaware of the training, experts said it has the potential to create an intellectual perty crisis on the platform

One growing trend is the rise of faceless AI channels

These are run by creators who use these tools to duce s with artificially generated images and voiceover that can sometimes earn thousands of dollars a month without them ever appearing on camera. "My goal is to scale up to 50 channels, though it's getting harder because of how YouTube handles new channels and trust scores," said a Spain-based creator who goes by the name GoldenHand and who declined to disclose his real name

Working with a small team, GoldenHand publishes up to 80 s per day across his network of channels, he said

GoldenHand said his content is audio-driven storytelling

He described his YouTube s as audiobooks that are paired with AI-generated images and subtitles

Everything after the initial idea is created entirely by AI, he said

He recently launched a new platform, TubeChef, which gives creators access to his system to automatically generate faceless AI s starting at $18 a month. "People think using AI means you're less creative, but I feel more creative than ever," he said. "Coming up with 60 to 80 viral ideas a day is no joke

The ideation is where all the effort goes now. "AI slopAs AI-generated content becomes more common online, concerns its impact are growing

Some users worry the spread of misinformation, especially as it becomes easier to generate convincing but entirely AI-fabricated s. "Even if the content is informative and someone might find it entertaining or useful, I feel we are moving into a time where

You do not have a way to understand what is human-made and what is not," said Henry Ajder, founder of Latent Space Advisory, which helps es navigate the AI landscape

Others are frustrated by the sheer volume of low-effort AI content flooding their s

This kind of material is often referred to as "AI slop" — low-quality, randomly generated content made using artificial intelligence

Google DeepMind Veo 3

Courtesy: Google DeepMind"The age of slop is inevitable," said Ajder, who is also an AI policy advisor at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. "I'm not sure what we do it. "While it's not new, the surge in this type of content has led to growing criticism from users who say it's harder to find meaningful or original material, particularly on apps such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. "I am actually so tired of AI slop," said one user on X. "AI images are everywhere now

There is no creativity and no effort in anything relating to art, or writing when using AI

It's disappointing. "However, creators of such AI content told CNBC that it comes down to supply and demand

As the AI-generated content continues to get clicks, there's no reason to stop creating more of it, said Noah Morris, a creator with 18 faceless YouTube channels

Some argue that AI s still have inherent artistic value, and though it's become much easier to create, slop- content has always existed on the internet, Lingelbach said. "There's never been a barrier to people making uninteresting content," he said. "Now there's just more opportunity to create different kinds of uninteresting content, but also more kinds of really interesting content too.