Can the creator economy stay afloat in a flood of AI slop?

Online creators and their business models were on our mind this week after mega-popular YouTuber MrBeast announced that his company is buying fintech startup Step , followed by Hollywood studios sending a flurry of cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance over the launch of its new video generation model Seedance 2.0. Those seemingly unconnected headlines suggest a media landscape in the midst of transformative change, as popular YouTubers look to diversify their business models , with the threat and promise of increasingly powerful generative AI tools on the horizon. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast , Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan, and I debated what’s next for the creator economy, and whether there will be any room for the next generation of creators to stand out. “What’s the next saturation point?” Kirsten wondered. “Not all of these folks can go out and spin off products. So then does the pool of successful creators just simply get smaller? Or will something else happen, technologically speaking, or a different medium that will allow them to find an audience to make money off of?” You can read a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below. Anthony: [The news] led our colleague Lauren to do this great piece talking about the creator business model in general , and this sense that they aren’t just relying on ad revenue anymore. I think it’s still a pretty big part of their business, but she broke down a number of the most popular YouTubers and noted that each of them is expanding — usually into e-commerce, but also into other revenue streams. Mr. Beast, for example, actually has this line of food products, including chocolate, that is making hundreds of millions of dollars and it was actually profitable for him in 2024, whereas his media business was losing money. All that was pretty wild to me. Techcrunch event Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit 1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Fou...