the future of online creators
While on the treadmill, I watched another video where AI advancements were discussed. The main assumption was that AI generated content is so easy and quick to churn out that it will drown out organic, handmade content. It was emphasized that most people just want to be entertained online and don’t care for how it’s made, maybe even have it on in the background anyway.
The following question was posed: Why would you bother going through the hassle of creating something by hand (which takes longer and is more exhausting and may not really get seen) if you can just quickly generate it? This was mostly directed at things like uploading animated short films and commentary videos with the clear goal of being a content creator and providing entertainment, not you privately making art as a hobby.
This made me realize that the rise of AI content generation will make internet creators (and maybe even you) strongly reconsider and be honest with themselves about who they’re doing it for and what they’re uploading. Many will likely say that the process is what counts and that they would still do it just for themselves even if no one saw it, and that the end result is for them. They’re having fun, doing it because they like it and it just so happens to work in their favor.
But I also think a significant amount of people actually need and care about views and mainly did it for that; maybe even started out with exactly that in mind and have never known social media and YT without a money and virality incentive. Look at all the content creators (not necessarily IG influencers, even just video essayists on YT) that pretty early on in their online career start a KoFi, Patreon etc. and beg you to like, subscribe and hit the notification bell. They do want the eyeballs, the interaction, and they wanna live off of it or at least get reimbursed. I don’t know if this type of creator will really be okay with finding the joy in the process and being overlooked in favor of what they deem low effort content. To some of them, it might be pointless without an audience and without financial success to go with it. They might quit.
That means in the next few years, we’re really going to see who loves their craft regardless of the circumstances, and who does it as a job mainly. The latter are probably willing to move to what the masses want and what’s the most efficient while generating money, while the others become more obscure or drop out of the race. I don’t know if handmade content will become more exclusive and desirable, its own niche and edge you have over the mainstream content. Could happen! I wouldn’t bet on it though, especially when AI generated content becomes harder and harder to spot and you could at some point lie about authenticity. You could probably even lie now - I don’t use AI to write on this blog, but would you able to tell if that was true?
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Published 19 Jun, 2025