AI·Artificial Intelligence‘Scary times’: YouTube’s biggest star, MrBeast, fears AI could impact ‘millions of creators’ after Sora launchBy Sasha RogelbergBy Sasha RogelbergReporterSasha RogelbergReporterSasha Rogelberg is a reporter and former editorial fellow on the news desk at Fortune, covering retail and the intersection of and culture.SEE FULL BIO Jimmy Donaldson, the creator behind MrBeast, warned of “scary times” for content creators after OpenAI’s new Sora launch.Chris Unger/TKO Worldwide LLC—Getty ImagesYouTube megastar Jimmy Donaldson, the creator behind the platform’s biggest channel, MrBeast, is worried there are “scary times” ahead for the creator economy as AI tools make it increasingly difficult to tell what is real.
“When AI s are just as good as normal s, I wonder what that will do to YouTube and how it will impact the millions of creators currently making content for a living…scary times,” Donaldson said on X on Sunday.
Donaldson’s concerns come on the heels of OpenAI’s release of a Sora social media platform able to generate short-form AI s, including of individuals who “upload” themselves onto the app.
Meta launched its similar -generating Vibes platform last month. Other content creators have spoken out the ramifications of platforms Sora.
YouTuber Casey Neistat, who has more than 12.6 million rs on the site, described the Sora app as a “TikTok clone where every is AI” in a on Sunday.
Still, Donaldson hasn’t shied away from dabbling in the nology.
In July, Donaldson released a tool viding AI-generated YouTube thumbnail images, but removed the feature a week later after heavy criticism from other creators.
He said he would replace the tool with links to human artists accepting commissions. “I care more than any of you could ever imagine the YouTube community,” he said in a .
“It deeply makes me sad when I do something that people in the community are upset by.” Beast Philanthropy, a nonfit arm of MrBeast, announced in February a partnership with Light AI, which developed an AI-powered tool to diagnose bacterial infection Group A Streptococcus through a smartphone photo.
The partnership will be used to send 10,000 of these tests to African patients. AI and the creator economy AI-generated content has become an increasing concern for online creators.
While more than 80% of Instagram content creators said they used AI tools for their content, including generating images and s, one-third said they had concerns the quality of the AI-generated content, and 45% said the nology would make it harder for human creators to stand out, according to a 2024 HypeAuditor survey of 620 Instagram influencers.
AI bots have already made their way onto platforms YouTube, with virtual YouTubers, or VTubers Bloo, racking up 2.7 million rs and more than 700 million views.
According to Jordi van den Bussche, the YouTuber known as kwebbelkop who created Bloo, the character’s s have brought in millions of dollars in revenue.
In 2023, a Snapchat user created an AI version of herself where more than 1 thousand “boyfriends” pay $1 per minute to converse with their virtual girlfriend.
Caryn Marjorie, the creator behind the bot, told Fortune she made $71,610 from one week of beta testing. Despite some users’ anxiety, not everyone sees AI as a bad thing for content creators.
Amjad Hanif, the YouTube executive at the head of creator payments and ducts, told Fortune in 2024 that the nology could help level the playing field among creators who may not have the same resources as Donaldson.
“A lot of the effects—the visual quality, the visual imagery—up until now it’s taken a team of somebody Jimmy to be able to duce,” Hanif said, referring to Donaldson.
“[AI] is going to make that available to a much broader group of creators.” Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
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