AI Slop and the End of the 'Human' Internet

Summary

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The Colin and Samir Show

Episode: AI Slop and the End of the 'Human' Internet
Date: February 18, 2026
Hosts: Colin & Samir

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Overview of the Episode

This episode delves into the rise of AI-generated content—dubbed "AI slop"—and its profound impact on the modern internet and creator economy. Colin and Samir explore how algorithmically mass-produced content is flooding digital platforms, how AI is blurring the line between authentic human creativity and artificial output, and what this means for individual creators, audiences, and the future of online culture. The main focus is a "slop survival guide"—how creators (and society) can navigate an internet increasingly dominated by abundant, indistinguishable, and often disposable content.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rise and Spread of "AI Slop"

• Bandar Apna Dost: Indian channel using fully AI-generated comedic content about a monkey in a human world. Achieved 3 million subscribers in 6 months, 2 billion views, and significant ad revenue.
  (00:00)
• Definition of “Slop”: Mass-produced, formulaic content for the masses. AI's entrance has made content production exponential.
  • “Enter the age of AI generated infinite slop. AI makes the production of slop exponential.” —Colin (00:28)
• Abundance Problem: The core challenge isn’t just low quality—there’s simply too much (often good) content for viewers to keep up.
  • Instagram: 95 million uploads/day; TikTok: 23 million; YouTube: 20 million.
  • “There’s too much stuff...and it’s not just made by humans, it’s also made by AI.” —Colin (00:53)

2. The Era of Content Abundance

• Abundance Era: Supply of content massively outpaces demand.
  • “So much so that it’s hard for any creator to actually stand out or any one thing to truly feel like a moment.” —Samir (01:34)
• Saturation & Replication: Every niche is crowded; copying successful ideas is commonplace with little consequence.
  • Example: Proliferation of “100 years of…” videos and near-duplicates across niches. (04:29-05:12)
• Fragmented Audiences: The sense of ‘big moments’ is diminished.
  • “It’s also why we have a reduction in that feeling of like things being a big deal…everyone’s in their own little pocket.” —Colin (05:34)

3. AI Slop Examples: How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes

• Shorts Feeds: Study claims 20% of new YouTube user Shorts is AI slop—meaning 80% is still human, but the trend is shifting. (02:29)
• AI-Generated Personas:
  • Neurosama: LLM-based virtual streamer with real-time chat interactivity and huge community—165,000 paid subs ($400K/month).
    • [Clip: Neurosama’s dark joke about cats] (07:18)
    • “There’s a real business there. People will transact.” —Samir (07:50)
  • Lil Miquela: Precedent for digital influencers; shifted norms about authenticity.
  • Deepfaked Podcast Clips: AI-generated podcast appearances of MrBeast and others, often indistinguishable at first glance (10:45-12:05).
    • “On first glance, I was like, wait, what? … both people in that are AI.” —Colin (11:32)
• Digital Twins:
  • Kaby Lame: Near-$1B deal to license AI twins for 24/7 live shopping globally. (12:30)
  • Snoop Dogg AI: Jesse Wellens runs “Death Row AI” Instagram account, making viral, convincing fake videos.
  • YouTube’s Plans: Soon anyone can generate Shorts with their own likeness (per CEO Neal Mohan). (15:33)
• Long-form AI Content:
  • Channels cloning styles like Legal Eagle, rivaling originals in views.
  • “Once you get into it, if you’re interested in the subject matter, you just accept it…the fact that people are watching is a threat and a problem for a channel like Legal Eagle.” —Colin (17:23)
• Hollywood’s Next Disruption:
  • AI-generated documentaries and podcasts (Epstein Files), mockumentaries (moon landing), and even content from legendary filmmakers (Darren Aronofsky with Google DeepMind).
  • “It is the epitome of ‘replacement via AI and abundance.’” —Samir (22:05)

4. Authenticity Under Threat

• AI now mimics “imperfections” for authenticity; Adam Mosseri (Instagram head) says we’ll need to “change the relationship with our eyes.”
  • “Relatively quickly, AI will create any aesthetic you like, including an imperfect one that presents as authentic.” —Samir quoting Adam Mosseri (09:30)
• Podcasting and long-form used to be an authenticity bastion; even those are under threat as AI-generated clips populate feeds. (10:30+)

5. Survival Strategies for Creators

Scale vs. Scarcity

• Scale Model: Maximize presence; leverage armies of clippers and AI to spread across platforms (e.g., MrBeast, Ishowspeed, Kwebbelkop).
  • “This is the way to manufacture scale and manufacture fame.” —Colin (26:48)
  • Example: Kwebbelkop lets Discord editors use his likeness, share rev. Model now feasible with AI everywhere. (27:17)
• Problems with Scale: Algorithms optimize for ‘best-for-the-moment video’, not loyalty to creators. Gen Z reported as less loyal, consuming more anonymous/aggregated content.
  • “I asked, and among Gen Z, the answer is often ‘I don’t watch creators, I just watch Instagram…dumb reels.’” —Colin (28:34; 29:47)
• Scarcity Model: Serve a smaller, intentional community with experiences/events or content that can’t be mass produced.
  • “You do unscalable things to keep a consistent connection with an audience, to maintain loyalty.” —Samir (31:38)
  • Example: Colin & Samir’s NYC event for 500 people—a tailored, real-world experience. (31:58)
  • “Giving an experience to fewer people…is how the majority of creators in the Abundance era will actually build real communities.” —Samir (32:03)
• Business Analogy: Scale = McDonald’s (“60 billion served”), Scarcity = Rolex (targeting a tiny, specific group). (33:13)

Redefining Success and Connection

• Success metrics will shift from top-line ‘views’ to “who will show up to your live event?” and “who truly connects?” (32:20)
• “If all you offer to the platform is views, there’s an abundance of accounts that can also offer views. You have to offer connection.” —Colin (32:42)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Abundance is the biggest threat to the individual creator right now. So, how do you survive as a creator through the abundance era?” —Colin (01:55)
• “The perception of authenticity is changing. AI is moving towards being able to mimic human authenticity.” —Samir (24:31)
• “I truly believe that the scale model will only work for a handful. The rest will have to go the scarcity route.” —Samir (31:18)
• “In the Abundance era, you can build for a tighter knit community. That’s actually better. Unless you have the brain for insane scale, we are meant to operate in smaller tribes.” —Colin (34:06)
• “I think everything is cyclical and there likely will be a movement of being offline, taking pride in being offline or in watching human content.” —Colin (39:13)
• “Take a step back and look at everything that’s happening. My biggest piece of advice: if you’re a creative individual right now, tap into what you honestly have to add to this conversation.” —Colin (39:53)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00-01:22: Explaining “AI slop” and viral AI-generated channels
• 03:25-05:39: How COVID and rise of creators led to current saturation & abundance
• 06:10-09:26: Showcasing AI-native creators (Neurosama, Lil Miquela, deepfaked podcasts)
• 12:30-15:33: Digital twins, celebrity licensing, Snoop Dogg, and democratized likeness creation
• 16:33-19:46: AI clones in long-form, true crime, and Hollywood productions
• 22:59-24:56: Recap: Abundance, authenticity crisis, and every screen being affected
• 25:49-29:47: Scale vs. scarcity breakdown, growing presence through clipping, challenges for creators
• 31:38-34:06: Real-world scarcity strategies; shifting focus from total views to deep connection
• 35:47-39:13: Societal impact, monoculture moments, absurdity, and future offline pride
• 39:53-41:02: Final advice: earn attention with authenticity, test your ideas in real conversations

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Conclusion: What Does It All Mean?

Colin and Samir conclude by underscoring the overwhelming, weird, and threatening times for online creativity and culture. The abundance era means no creator is safe from competition with humans or machines. Yet, the path forward is focusing on genuine value, deep connections, and scarcity—not just chase mass eyeballs.

They encourage creators and listeners to critically consider what they really bring to the digital conversation, and to focus on connecting in a real and memorable way. The episode closes with advice (courtesy of Mark Rober): test your ideas in the real world—if they spark genuine interest, you’re on to something.

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Episode Takeaway:
The internet and creator economy are being transformed by AI, making true human connection and specialized communities more valuable—and necessary—than ever. The challenge now: don’t just survive the slop; stand out by being irreplaceably real.

Transcript

[Colin]

This is an Indian YouTube channel called Bandar Apna Dost, or subscribe. They started uploading about six months ago and all the videos are fully generated by AI. They're all comedic and they center around this monkey living in a human world. Now, this channel has gained 3 million subscribers in the past six months and there's real viewership. It's done 2 billion views. There's reports of this channel making really good money.

[Samir]

And this type of channel is everywhere now. It's what people are calling slop.

[Colin]

They're a type of artificially generated content that is flooding social media. Enter the age of AI generated infinite slop. Now, I didn't invent slop. Slop has been around forever. It's fast content that's made for the masses. But AI makes the production of slop exponential.

[Samir]

And the problem with slop is that it's contributing to the even greater problem that we're seeing on the Internet right now. Abundance.

[Colin]

There's too much stuff to put some numbers to that. There are 95 million photos and videos uploaded to Instagram every day. There are 23 million TikToks uploaded every day and 20 million videos uploaded to YouTube every single day. And one of the main problems with this abundance is that a lot of the content is good. There's good content everywhere. It's on every screen. And it's not just made by humans, it's. It's also made by AI. And all this content is only getting better every day.

[Samir]

The so called AI slop is getting less sloppy.

[Colin]

It is becoming harder and harder to discern which is which. The new Sora, it seems designed to make videos that look believable.

[Samir]

And this wave of content that we're seeing every day is what we've been calling the abundance era. This point where the supply for content has gone so far beyond the actual demand, so much so that it's hard for any creator to actually stand out or any one thing to truly feel like a moment to feel significant.

[Colin]

I truly believe that abundance is the biggest threat to the individual creator right now. So I think it's really important for us to talk about what's going on in our feeds right now and how you defend against this. How do you survive as a creator through the abundance era?

[Samir]

So today on the show, we're going to be breaking down this major shift that's taking place on the Internet. Basically like a slop survival guide.

[Colin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a whole episode about AI slop. If you have thoughts on it, which you probably already do. You're probably already pissed a little bit about this episode, or maybe a lot of it, or maybe a lot of bit Fair. It's a weird time.

[Samir]

Fair.

[Colin]

But feel free to comment now with some feelings, thoughts, get it out and then be open to the discussion. I don't know why I'm so mad. Not mad. Okay, so there was this new study done that shows that 20% of a new YouTube user's shorts feed is AI slop. This company basically started a bunch of new YouTube accounts and this is what they report. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's what they report. But that means that 80% of the other content is human made. And so this number that we said about YouTube of 20 million videos posted every day, which is a number published by YouTube, that's an overwhelming amount of human made content as well. So it's important to recognize that in the abundance era, there's both. Both things are happening at the same time. We've also over the past 10 years, had a rise in good quality human creators. Like just people who know how to make good videos.

[Samir]

Yeah. For me, it starts with COVID where all of a sudden people have all of this available time to watch content. Hollywood's not able to produce like it used to. So the demand is really high and the supply is actually low. And creators came in to fill that demand. The ad dollars moved to creators, and all of a sudden we had all of these individuals who became established professional creators and it became very aspirational to be a creator. And that drove a lot of other people to want to be creators. I don't think there's like a single industry today that isn't touched by the creator economy.

[Colin]

So now, six years later, we are at a point in the creator economy where every niche is very saturated. And a lot of that also has to do, to be honest, with, with the fact that like, copying or replicating content in the creator economy has little to no consequence. So if you go on YouTube, you're gonna see, you know, hundreds of variations of the same video and they all work.

[Samir]

Here's a video about a secret room from a creator named Ben Aslart, who we know. And here's a very similar video from Topper Guild.

[Colin]

If you just search a hundred years of on YouTube, you will see an abundance of that video. And so that that has also added to the abundance era. Right. Is like the aspiration of being a creator and then the ability to just either come up with an original idea or replicate an idea that works.

[Samir]

And apparently there were enough views for everyone to do similar types of things even within our smaller niche of the creator economy. I'll put these up on the screen right now. This is a video from us, a video from John Ushai, and then a video from Jordan Schwarzenberger. It's like every flavor within our industry and it feels like we reach saturation even before AI.

[Colin]

Yes. So even that abundance pre AI has changed what it means to be an online creator. It's like increased competition for audience. Audiences have way more choice. Right. And things are much more fractured and more niche. It's also why we have a reduction in that feeling of like things being a big deal is because everyone is in their own pocket of everyone's in

[Samir]

their own little pocket.

[Colin]

And. And so it's harder to understand what we all watch.

[Samir]

Right.

[Colin]

Or what we're all into.

[Samir]

So now take that effect right there, that is human made, and pile on this surge of AI video that's coming.

[Colin]

Now. Originally, I will say I was part of the creator class that was like AI video. No one's going to watch that. But we've put together seven examples of AI videos that have come across our feed that we want to show you guys and talk about because they're so substantial, to just understand what is happening right now.

[Samir]

Okay, first up, we have Neurosama. My name is Neurosama, but you can call me Neuro. I'm an artificial intelligence created with the singular purpose of entertaining you all.

[Colin]

So Nurosama is a vtuber, which means virtual youtuber. But Neurosama is a very unique vtuber because she is LLM based, like AI based.

[Samir]

Her creator uses a combination of LLMs and different software to make sure that she can be live on Twitch, playing video games, interacting with chat, responding to chat. She can essentially see what's happening on screen in the video game. And she has a personality and a tone to her.

[Colin]

Now the thing about Nurasama that has really stuck out to me is she has a real community to the point where she hosted a subathon at the beginning of this year and became the most subscribed to Twitch streamer in paid subs, meaning 165,000 people were paying to

[Samir]

subscribe to Neurosama, which comes with estimates that she's making $400,000 a month, roughly.

[Colin]

Yeah, in top line, but yeah, that, that is, that's no joke. That's like real, real people, real money, real connection.

[Samir]

Let me just play a clip from her real Quick. You know what my favorite thing is? Cats. And eating them whole while they're still warm and fresh from the oven.

[Colin]

What?

[Samir]

Okay, so I played that clip only to show you that there's a perspective there. Like, it is jarring, it is unhinged, it's entertaining.

[Colin]

Yeah. The thing I watch, I mean, that's

[Samir]

not watered down, it's bizarre.

[Colin]

That's really bizarre. But I think that that is probably the enjoyment of. Is unpredictable in a way a human can't be.

[Samir]

I think Neurosama is just proof that even if AI content doesn't look human, if the story's good enough, people will tune in and there's a real business there. People will transact.

[Colin]

Yeah. I mean, if you're unfamiliar with Lil Mikayla. Lil Mikayla was an Instagram influencer. Still around, actually, but started a few years ago, or maybe 10 years ago at this point. But like a character that showed up on Instagram as an influencer way before her time, but that was a real business. Like, she was doing brand deals, she was doing music. Like, it's. It was an. Basically a virtual character created on Instagram.

[Samir]

And people thought that was weird because Instagram has historically been a place for your friends, for authenticity, for real people.

[Colin]

Exactly.

[Samir]

I'm going to play a clip now from Instagram.

[Colin]

You can't make AI look real unless you use this, a three step workflow

[Samir]

that I give you at the end.

[Colin]

First, force AI to inject realism with these tokens. Surface roughness, skin grain, micro bumps. But Your prompt is only 30.

[Samir]

I don't know what side of Instagram they think I'm on, but I.

[Colin]

This is all I get.

[Samir]

I keep getting like, hey, this is how you make AI look human.

[Colin]

Yeah. So if we go from, like, Nurasama, which is. Which is, you know, LLM based, but. But clearly not human, to Lil Michaela, which was a little bit more like, okay, human, like, to. Now the suggestion is make it indistinguishable. Like, literally, the. The. The suggestion there is make it indisting. And I will say I have sent you a few Instagram reels that I didn't know weren't real people.

[Samir]

Yes.

[Colin]

And that is a concerning era for me.

[Samir]

And yet the platform knows that this is happening and it's the wave of the future. Adam Mosseri put out a post at the end of 2025, and he said, relatively quickly, AI will create any aesthetic you like, including an imperfect one that presents as authentic. He goes on to say that this will be one of the first Times in human history where we have to change the relationship with our eyes and whether we can believe them or not.

[Colin]

And I think it's a really important thing to recognize that that was the premise of the creator economy was authenticity. It was real people. Right. Like, the premise of Instagram was the extension of reality TV and the kind of, like, democratization of reality tv, which has been what gave birth to the creator economy.

[Samir]

You feel like you can trust Emma Chamberlain because you know who she is. She's showing her true self. There's. It's not the Hollywood star system where someone's been made to be something maybe that they're not sure. These are supposed to be real people.

[Colin]

So in the creator economy and on YouTube, when things started to get more produced, we saw a rise in podcasts because podcasting was just. What. What this is just. We're just sitting here, we're talking, and you're watching us talk. It's like it's real.

[Samir]

It's hard not to be yourself in a long form conversation.

[Colin]

Yeah, yeah. So, like, long conversations. So I am scrolling Instagram two nights ago, and I come across this podcast setting with Mr. Beast. Obviously, we've had Jimmy on many times on this show, and I'm like, oh, I've never seen this one. I think I've seen almost every Mr. Beast podcast, but I've never seen this one.

[Samir]

I would post 100 videos per day,

[Colin]

testing every single hook from different angles. How would you record them? I mean, if you're starting over, you wouldn't have the budget to buy and destroy Lamborghinis. Oh, I don't need a budget.

[Samir]

I just go all in on AI cloning me. And my team would create all the content using just one single photo of me. So this way I don't spend time recording and I just focus on bringing money. And technically, I can destroy Lamborghinis without even buying them.

[Colin]

Obviously, as you watch it a little bit more, you're like, that's A.I.

[Samir]

of course, of course.

[Colin]

But on first glance, I was like, wait, what? And both. Both people in that are AI, the host, and Jimmy. And this account has interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and other notable people that look really real. And I'm recognizing, as this gets better, the subject matter might just be interesting right now. Again, like, I don't. I don't want to watch that. I have an adverse reaction to it. But there's a lot of people like these. These all have real views. This is real viewership. People are landing on this. And you can see where this is going.

[Samir]

Yeah. This is a piece of content that would replace a video that we made.

[Colin]

100%. 100%. Flat out, yes.

[Samir]

Okay. So that leads us to AI and these tools being used to duplicate real people. That guy obviously is not working with Mr. Beast to replicate Mr. Beast, but what we're seeing are creators and celebrities creating digital twins of themselves.

[Colin]

So this concept really hit headlines with Kaby Lame doing a reported deal for almost a billion dollars with this company in Hong Kong. And the concept was essentially, take him because he's the most followed tiktoker in the world, one of the most recognizable faces, and buy out the rights to his name, image, and likeness to create digital twins for live shopping in multiple languages all over the world. So 247 live shopping streams with Kaby Lame's face all over the world. Now, who knows about the ins and outs of this deal? It seems very strange, but the crux of it is the ability to take a recognizable face and commercialize it through putting it everywhere. Now, this concept of taking a familiar face and commercializing that face or monetizing that face across a bunch of different avenues is not unique to AI or this moment. It has happened in Hollywood before and is a model in Hollywood. Shaq is one of the first people to do this with a group called Authentic Brands Group. He's the largest shareholder in this company. But if you're wondering why you see Shaq in everything like Gold Bond, Shaq Papa John's, Shaq Insurance General Shaq, it's

[Samir]

because he sold the rights to essentially, his face, to his name, image, and likeness. And now I think the Cobby deal just shows us is that that could eventually happen to a crazy degree through AI Digital twins.

[Colin]

Yeah, it might actually happen differently. You might not have to pay a billion dollars. It might just be like, you know, a licensing model of I get. You know, I get your face, and if I generate money, whatever. Basically all this to say is like, this. This is a thing like, there have been technically, like, twins created, right? Like, Kevin Hart and Shaq can exist all over the world, and that trades at a really high valuation. But AI enables this to a exponential degree. And we are already seeing celebrities do this. I see what type of morning we have it straight off the porch into the swamp. This ain't no stuffed animal.

[Samir]

This the real deal gator right here.

[Colin]

Keep the jaw press. You let go, he gets you. I mean, that's a good.

[Samir]

So that I'm sure you know who that is. Yeah, that's if you're Snoop Dogg watching. That is a Snoop Dogg wrestling an alligator.

[Colin]

And it looks really real, let me tell you. That looks really real. And that has real engagement. What is that? 80,000 likes on this?

[Samir]

People are laughing nonstop in the comments.

[Colin]

I mean, it's funny. It's funny to watch. And this is Instagram account called Death Row AI and it is run by creator, who we're just chatting with upstairs here at the Lighthouse, Jesse Wellens, who, if you probably know him from YouTube, he was prank versus prank. But Jesse is the AI director, I think it's called, or AI prompt director, AI creative director of this account. And so his job here is to take Snoop's name, image and likeness and create funny content.

[Samir]

Spread it far and wide.

[Colin]

Yeah, spread it far and wide. Like this is happening. This digital twin thing is happening.

[Samir]

And if you're sitting there thinking, okay, yeah, it's happening, but this account has an art director. Someone's being paid to make these or Kaby lame. There's this huge transaction and a company behind it, CEO of YouTube, Neil Mohan, said in his most recent letter that this year you're going to be able to create shorts with your own likeness. So this technology is being opened up to anyone and everyone.

[Colin]

I mean, that's really significant, like, because obviously Instagram will follow, obviously, TikTok will follow, obviously. And we saw it with Sora. So OpenAI's video platform. We saw this where you open up Sora. I did it. I created a model of myself and then I could use my own likeness to generate videos. And it was pretty weird, but I could also press a button saying, anyone can use my likeness. That is why you saw AI Jake Paul everywhere, technically out, like open, sourcing your digital twin to the public.

[Samir]

Okay, if you're listening or watching and you are skeptical, we have a couple more examples here that I think may push you over the edge.

[Colin]

Okay, so most of the examples we've shown you are short form content. And it feels more realistic to go, okay, all right, short form, that's fine. Like, that'll probably happen. But I found a new long form channel on YouTube that feels very alarming. This morning at 6:47am Eastern Time, four IRS Criminal Investigation Division agents arrived at the offices of Mazars USA in midtown Manhattan. They carried federal grand jury subpoenas demanding 15 years of Donald Trump's tax preparation documents. And this, for me, feels clearly based off the human creator, Legal Eagle. Now, all this highlights why it's so important to get a great lawyer when

[Samir]

you're dealing with your Own case.

[Colin]

The AI lawyer here who's making similar content, talking about cases, is generating real

[Samir]

views, Hundreds of thousands of views.

[Colin]

Hundreds of thousands of views.

[Samir]

Very comparable to Legal Eagle.

[Colin]

Because you take a step back, and once you get into it, if you're interested in the subject matter, you just accept it. You just accept his delivery. And the fact that people are watching that is a. Is a threat and a problem for a channel like Legal Eagle. And, you know, you look at, again, the culture that we mentioned early of the Internet, which is find what works and replicate it. That was more friction heavy with a human of, like, I gotta copy this person's thing. Maybe I have some guilt associated with copying this thing. Maybe it's just hard logistically to try and copy it with AI. It's like, I don't know. Whoever's prompting this, I assume has very little friction to try and figure this out.

[Samir]

Right?

[Colin]

Just like, okay, yeah, cool. Legal Eagle works. Okay, let me replicate it.

[Samir]

It's all just adding to this abundance. We've covered Twitch, we've covered short form, We've covered podcasts, long form. Now let's look at Hollywood.

[Colin]

Yeah. Because YouTube's one thing, but Hollywood is. Hollywood is Hollywood. Yeah. Yeah. But these two examples are crazy.

[Samir]

Here we go. Okay, this first one is a trailer for a documentary, a mockumentary about a fake moon landing.

[Colin]

Yeah. And everyone believed us. People just always want to believe that something is real.

[Samir]

We've all seen the pictures, but is

[Colin]

there any actual proof that you were on the moon? Well, we had cameras there.

[Samir]

What other proof do you need?

[Colin]

This one is insane, dude. I would recommend watching that in full. That one is insane. As a fan of documentaries, as guys who made documentaries, the music is great,

[Samir]

the vintage footage is great, and it's done by a German creator named Simon Mayer. He's using Kling. I really don't know what Kling is, but I know cling. You know cling. I don't know cling.

[Colin]

I'm chronically online.

[Samir]

Why'd you raise your eyebrows like that? Like, I know Kling.

[Colin]

I know Kling. I don't know, man. I just know things.

[Samir]

So that one hooked me. Just from a story perspective, that one is good.

[Colin]

I mean, when I watched that, what I recognized was depending on how fast that was made. Like right now, obviously, the cultural and political zeitgeist is all about Jeffrey Epstein, right in the Epstein files. And there's a lot of people searching, how did this guy get rich? What's his backstory? All this. If somebody made a documentary like that about the backstory of all this. People would watch it because you just.

[Samir]

Even with a disclaimer that said, like, these visuals are AI generated, they are interpretations.

[Colin]

Now the crazy thing is this already happened with the Epstein Files. But it's like this true crime audio podcast. You are listening to the Epstein Files, the world's first AI native investigation into the case that traditional journalism simply could not handle. And people are listening. It did 100,000 downloads in the first week. Let's think about the Olympics. The Olympics are about to happen in 2028 in LA. The Winter Olympics are this year. Let's say that there's a big story of an Olympian. Ah, that American won something, or that that French guy won. You know, this crazy pole vaulting, like whatever goes viral on the Internet. But let's say there's some big Olympic moment that happens and somebody goes viral. Imagine having a documentary on that person's backstory that week.

[Samir]

Yeah, I truly believe that that's coming.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

Okay, now the last AI generated video before we break down what this all means.

[Colin]

My lords and gentlemen, the rebellious war begun in the province of Massachusetts Bay

[Samir]

is become more general and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire.

[Colin]

Yeah. So Darren Aronofsky, legendary filmmaker, his production

[Samir]

company partnered with Google DeepMind to make this series for Time magazine's YouTube channel. All of the images and video are generated with AI. The voices are human. It was edited by humans. There was a lot of pushback to this, I think, because, yeah, they're pissed, of course, that someone from within Hollywood is doing something that cuts a lot of humans out of the equation, let

[Colin]

alone outside of Hollywood. If you scroll Twitter right now and just look at some of the outputs from C dance, which is ByteDance's new model, you're going to see like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and major actors likenesses used. He was a good man. He knew too much about our Russia operations. He had to die. And now you die too. The industry of Hollywood is full of all types of labor, like building sets, costume designers, gaffers, sound engineers, actors, extras.

[Samir]

Essentially the epitome of replacement of like replacement via AI and abundance.

[Colin]

Yeah. And I think because of that it is very natural. Of course. I mean, I'm like this too. For us to go like this, this is so threatening to everything we love about creativity in filmmaking. I just want everyone who's watching this to apply a consumer perspective to this and imagine like I have a one year old son, you have a seven month old son, they will not know a different world.

[Samir]

No. And by the time they're watching what's on their screens, there will be no novelty to whether it's made with AI or not. There will be no disclaimers, in my opinion. I don't think there will be. You know, I said this before, but I make graphics and after effects. It doesn't look like real life. I don't tell people it's not real or that I used after effects.

[Colin]

Right.

[Samir]

It's just a tool that I use.

[Colin]

Yeah. Now, we are saying this from the perspective of being two guys who sit in chairs and talk for a living and, like, make YouTube videos for a living. And our ability to earn a living and continue building our brand and this channel and this relationship with you guys has all been predicated on the fact that we are having a real connection with you guys.

[Samir]

Right.

[Colin]

With all of you who are listening and watching. And so I just want to put that out there as, like, we. This is a threat to us. And we are definitely, like, concerned about this. Like, this is. This is concerning. But I also want to be a realist here.

[Samir]

Well, I think naturally, you and I have been searching for answers to this.

[Colin]

Yeah, we talk about this a lot.

[Samir]

And with all the creators that we've been interviewing lately, we've been asking questions with a curious mind to. Okay, what are we going to do about all this abundance? Yeah. How are we going to survive? Because I really like this career.

[Colin]

Yeah. This is super fun. And also like filmmaking, creativity and storytelling and having a connection with an audience, that's really fun.

[Samir]

It's fulfilling, it's gratifying. I want everyone else to be able to do it. How do we survive this?

[Colin]

Our whole channel is about helping other people do this thing too. So. Yeah.

[Samir]

Okay. Before we move on and talk about how you can defend yourself against all of this abundance, let's first recap what we've talked about. Number one, abundance is here. And it was here even before the rise of AI video. But it's about to get way worse with AI video. Next, we're seeing the end of authenticity as a defense mechanism for human made content.

[Colin]

At least the perception of authenticity.

[Samir]

The perception of authenticity.

[Colin]

Yeah, at least the perception of authenticity, because I think the term is changing. And we'll talk about that.

[Samir]

AI is moving towards being able to mimic human authenticity.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Samir]

And then abundance is coming to every screen. It's coming to Twitch, to Instagram, TikTok, short form, long form podcasts. It's coming to long form YouTube. And it's coming to Hollywood.

[Colin]

Can I play a song, please?

[Samir]

Yeah.

[Colin]

Do you want me to say it or you want to say it?

[Samir]

It's AI. That's a. Oh, man.

[Colin]

This is a artist named Kayla Cross. That song has 9.4 million streams on spot. She is a rising artist, and she is not real.

[Samir]

I was really hoping it was Olivia Dean. And you just wanted to give us a little bit of a break from all this. AI.

[Colin]

AI is coming for your ears as well. But I assume somebody went, olivia Dean's hot. Let me make a similar artist.

[Samir]

I'll make a similar artist that can

[Colin]

show up on the Spotify playlist next to her.

[Samir]

All right, everybody, we maybe have taken you down a little bit here with all of these case studies and examples, but let's bring you back up, okay?

[Colin]

In this era of abundance, there are two very clear paths for creators. One is scale, and the other is scarcity. So when we talk about scale, this has been happening pre AI as well through the rise of clipping. So clipping has become such a major part of the creator economy. I mean, creators like Ishowspeed have really become famous through clipping. And I think what people recognized, you know, we talked about Khaby Lame earlier. That's like one of the most familiar faces on the Internet, Charlie D' Amelio, at one point, Mr. Beast. That has all been exponential because of clipping. So companies like WOP. Mr. Beast just launched a company called Vyro, where basically there's armies of people who are in discord servers or available to edit, who get access to your content, who take your video clip it. The editors get paid based on how many views they generate on your clip. This is the way to manufacture scale and manufacture fame, basically.

[Samir]

For a lot of creators, the scale model is be as present as possible. Yeah, be everywhere. Again.

[Colin]

I've never watched a Kai Sinat livestream. I've never watched an Ishowspeed live stream, but I see the clips everywhere. To me, they are the most culturally relevant and popular, but it's because their clips are everywhere.

[Samir]

I think this path will be increasingly more difficult to realize as a creator to make happen. I think it's in direct competition with the abundance era.

[Colin]

I agree with you. I sat down with a creator in Dubai named Kwebbelkop, who you guys may know, and he is doing this model with AI. So he basically has a Discord server where he has opened up his likeness. There's a bunch of editors. They edit videos with his likeness or prompt videos with his likeness. He posts them across every platform. Whatever money they make on the platforms, the editors get. There was somebody from his discord who made this video of him, the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, drinking chocolate out of the chocolate river. It made a thousand bucks on Facebook.

[Samir]

Took him about 10 minutes to make.

[Colin]

Yeah. And that guy who prompted that made $1,000 based on that. So he scaled his presence by incentivizing people to use his likeness to produce AI content across every platform.

[Samir]

I think the problem with the scale model for creators is that the more content that's out there, the way these algorithms work is they're just trying to serve you pretty much the best video for you in that moment, not necessarily the best video from a creator you've liked in the past.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Samir]

And so I think we're moving towards a place where loyalty is harder to come by. You had a conversation with your cousin who is Gen Z, correct? Yeah, she's.

[Colin]

She's at Michigan. What's up, Sophie?

[Samir]

And when we're hopefully you're asking, like, anyone who's Gen Z anything, you just trust them and, like, blindly, you just believe what they say.

[Colin]

So my cousin, she goes to Michigan. She's, I think, a junior at Michigan. And I started to get really curious. Some of my curiosity about the abundance era was who are people loyal to? Like, what creators are people watching on a regular basis? I have my list of creators, but they're mostly comedy podcasts. And I found that to be kind of comment amongst people. I asked, and I'd be curious to ask everyone who's listening and watching right now, like, what do you not miss on a weekly basis? Who is that creator? What is that podcast? What is that thing? I've been asking that question everyone, but when I ask it to people in the Gen Z category, people who are in college right now, the answer is often, like, I, I don't watch creators, I just watch Instagram. And that was her answer. We were talking about screen time. She said, my screen time is as bad as yours. Unfortunately, I don't really follow creators. I think I just watch dumb reels. Long story short, she felt like creators were potentially too commercial and that if she watches creators, there's she's being advertised to too much. So she'd prefer to watch content from anonymous accounts or from just generally Instagram,

[Samir]

which I think is also due to abundance, that she feels like not only is there just an abundance of content, so she's not loyal to a creator, there's an abundance of advertising that, like, the creator economy has come so far so many people are actually making a living.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

That it has made her experience worse watching. But you also heard this from a student at Harvard.

[Colin]

Yes, I did a zoom with a student at Harvard who told me amongst his friends, which are college athletes, they don't watch any creators. He was like, oh, yeah, I grew up watching Logan, Paul and Mr. Beast, but none of us watch that anymore. We just watch TikTok edits. So, like TikTok sports edits.

[Samir]

Yeah.

[Colin]

And I went further and I asked him the same question. He said basically the same thing. He was like, yeah, it's kind of like, it's kind of lame to be so attached to a creator.

[Samir]

Whoa.

[Colin]

And take it easy. I think, I think the honest reality as a creator when you think about scale and what's happening on these platforms is the scale is in videos. These are video platforms. They are going to find the best video for that moment. We used to be the ones when supply was low, who could create a video that was so much better than all the other videos on the platform. That's just not really the case anymore anymore. Like when you, a professional creator makes a video, all the other videos on the platform are also pretty good. So you're. You're like, everything is good.

[Samir]

So I think scale will work for a select number of creators. The same way that, like, there's a few actors that, that get to work in Hollywood. I believe the majority of creators are going to go the scarcity route.

[Colin]

So this is the approach that what you make is for a specific group of people. It's probably for a smaller group of people. You don't have to be available all the time. You make one thing with intention and craft. It's kind of the thousand true fans model, but probably expanded a little bit more and more real.

[Samir]

Yeah. You do unscalable things to keep a consistent connection with an audience, to maintain loyalty. I would say as an example, we threw our event press published New York City. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on that venue and we had three surprise speakers. It was a whole day event and only 500 people were there.

[Colin]

Yeah. Right.

[Samir]

That's very different than making a ton of videos for millions and millions of people.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Samir]

But that route, I believe giving an experience to fewer people that they will remember, I think is how the majority of creators in the Abundance era will actually build real communities, sustainable businesses. I believe, like, that's the path forward.

[Colin]

Yeah. I think as a creator, you have to think about what is your live event and would people show up. And if the answer is no, then something's off right now. Then you're super replaceable. Because if all you offer to the platform is views, then there's an abundance of accounts that can also offer views. And so you absolutely have to offer connection.

[Samir]

Yeah. The future of the creator economy is not more content and more views.

[Colin]

No.

[Samir]

It is defending why people even choose you in the first place.

[Colin]

Exactly. There's two sides of the spectrum that we should talk about that exist in business that we've been talking about quite a bit. The scale model is McDonald's. There's this image that we pulled that says 60 billion served. They are proud of their scale. They are something for everyone. They exist in every country. They are available all the time. That is Mr. Beast. Right? That's iShowspeed. Mr.

[Samir]

Beast dubbed in every language. Highly visual, so you can enjoy it no matter where you are.

[Colin]

There's something for everyone.

[Samir]

Yep.

[Colin]

Yeah. And on the other side of that spectrum, there's this ad from Rolex and it's from 1967. And Rolex is the ultimate, like, luxury brand. It's. It's meant for a specific group of people. And the ad says, if you were negotiating here tomorrow, you'd wear a Rolex. And it shows the Geneva Convention. That is so niche.

[Samir]

It's incredibly niche.

[Colin]

It's so niche. But it tells you exactly who you are, are. It's your, it's, it's. Let me tell you your identity if you're a part of this group. And that I think is the scarcity play for creators. Right. It's not, not necessarily that you have to make stuff for a luxury audience.

[Samir]

It's not always wealth.

[Colin]

I mean, it's not wealth, it's just

[Samir]

Lacrosse Network, our first business was highly targeted at a small group of people.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

Colin and Samir, even. It's targeted at a small group of people who are into creators and media.

[Colin]

One of the most impressive brands in the creator space right now, I think, is tppn, which is a daily live Twitter show about technology and business that is for a very small group of people. But that's why it's so impressive and so big, is because it's scarce, it's rare, it is special. So I think all of us as creators right now, I think we can and should all take a deep breath out and not be so concerned with the top line view number on what we're making. Because once you settle into the concept that, like, views are just everywhere now and they're available, and that's not what makes you Unique. I think you can start to understand, like, we're entering a new era. The Abundance era means you can build for a tighter knit community. And that's actually better. I think it's way better. And unless you have the brain for that insane scale that people like Jimmy and Speed have, we are meant to operate in smaller tribes and like, with. With more clarity on who we are talking to.

[Samir]

And again, I think even Jimmy and Speed, these scale mass creators, I believe their job is going to keep getting harder and harder and harder.

[Colin]

Yeah. Jimmy said that himself.

[Samir]

Because of the Abundance era.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

Because there's going to be so much content that is capable of filling that void for people. It's going to be really difficult. They're going to go to amazing lengths to maintain the brands that they have.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

Okay, now let's talk about, for society at large, what does this mean? There's a video that you shared with me from Nathan zed.

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Samir]

On YouTube where he talks about how nothing feels like a moment anymore. And obviously that's where we started the episode. And I think that's true. I think fewer things will matter, but at the same time, fewer things will matter more than they've ever mattered.

[Colin]

Right.

[Samir]

Like across the board, it'll feel like not much matters, but certain things will increase. Like, for example, I believe billboards will matter more because they are capped.

[Colin]

You think so?

[Samir]

I think so. I think real estate on the Internet is infinite. Real estate in real life is capped and I think it will get more valuable. Digital viewership is infinite, so I think it will potentially decline in value or it'll get diluted a little bit. But I think IRL viewership will increase in value because it's kept so concerts, sporting events, stand up comedy, even the super bowl, which just happened. Ads for the super bowl are still incredibly expensive and incredibly valuable because there is only one Super Bowl.

[Colin]

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. I think Nathan Zedd's video was fantastic about this. Like, he brought up the concept that, like, when Stranger Things, the final season came out, like, it just kind of like came and it was kind of a big deal and a lot of people watched it, but then it was just, ah, it's over. Yeah, there will be fewer monoculture moments, but those moments will matter a lot. But I think one thing about society that I can't get out of my head that's really concerning to me is a conversation we had with Thomas Bragg of. Yes. Theory about the absurdity of, of our feeds. And I think that's a really important one. Like something that I've noticed is that most monoculture now is politics, news and like war. It's, it's all stuff that is now newly accessible in our feed at like a pretty high velocity.

[Samir]

Yeah.

[Colin]

And what we can watch, what video we can watch is very absurd now. And that's a mix of AI video stuff that's happening in the world. And so when I look at the impacts of society from the Abundance era, it's the increase in absurdity.

[Samir]

And what Thomas was saying was that the more absurd the world gets, he believes, the more absurd our feeds get. What we, our tolerance for what we watch gets.

[Colin]

It's the, yeah, we're getting desensitized to watching absurd things. And I think AI generated video will desensitize us at a crazy scale. And so then that also increases our tolerance for the absurdity of our own actions and the absurdity of the world in general. And so that I think is a, is a major concern about the increase in AI content and the increase of just content in general that we're consuming. Like when you open up your phone, it's almost like the feed is attacking you and it's like this hostile environment.

[Samir]

So I think that's the biggest responsibility that platforms have is to. This is a very difficult, nuanced and subjective thing, but is to take a stance on how much absurdity. How do you even say what's absurd and what's not? But I think it is like there are things obviously like a degree of violence, racism, all of these things that do spread societies apart, that AI does have the opportunity, you're right, to also increase that in abundance. And I think it's really important that, that, that there's a plan for that.

[Colin]

I think everything is cyclical and there likely will be a movement of being offline like that, that is a movement. It probably won't be so big because like it's. Everybody's a phone in their pocket. Like people are going to be online. But I think there will be more pride taken in being offline.

[Samir]

And again, I think similar to, I watch human content.

[Colin]

Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah. And I think for us as creators, like, at least, you know, when I think about this, it's like, what do I want to add to these feeds? That's something that I've really been pushing myself to think about is like, what do I honestly want to add here? Yeah, because any strategic idea I have is going to get made. Any like, business centric idea of like, oh, that'd be a good video. It's like that's going to get made by someone or something.

[Samir]

Yeah.

[Colin]

So what do I honestly have to say and honestly have to add? And a lot of that is why we're focusing more on live events, getting out in public with people. Like, and it's an overwhelming time. I just want to acknowledge that, like, it's an overwhelming time. It's important to take a step back and look at everything that's happening. But, like, my, my biggest piece of advice is if you're a creative individual right now, really tap into what you honestly have to add to this conversation. Not, not the AI conversation, but the conversation in our feeds. What do you have to add to these environments? What is the thing that you want to share that's going to connect with people on a real level?

[Samir]

And one of my favorite tests for that, that I'll leave you all with is, you know, when we sat down with Mark Rober a couple years ago, he said that if he has an idea for a video he wants to make, he just starts telling people at parties and get togethers and surfacing it. And if their reaction is, oh, that's interesting and new, that's different. He knows he's got something.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Samir]

And I think we're starting to do the same thing. A lot of what we talked about in this episode today are things that we've been floating around to people for the last month.

[Colin]

Yeah, yeah.

[Samir]

And getting a reaction from and sort of testing, being like, okay, I think we have something we really want to say here.

[Colin]

Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's a lot of thoughts about AI video, the abundance era, the future of humans and society. It's a, it's, it's heavy. It's a lot of thoughts. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Obviously this is a topic that we'll probably cover again because it is just abundant. It's all over our feeds. It's everywhere. Let us know what you think and we'll see you next week.