It’s Tuesday, and Florida wants to ban ChatGPT from “pretending it’s human.” Our question: would a chatbot that can’t act like a person be more or less unnerving?

TALKING POLITICS

The town hall: As James Talarico attempts to turn Texas blue, CNN and Jubilee Media are giving him a chance to meet voters online. The two media companies have joined forces to present CNN & Jubilee Town Hall with James Talarico, a stream that will be hosted by anchor Erin Burnett on October 14.

A press release from CNN and Jubilee states that Talarico’s electoral opponent, Republican Ken Paxton, was also invited to participate in the town hall—but there’s no indication that he plans to accept. As the Attorney General of Texas, Paxton has fought hard to strip the protections that allow platforms like YouTube to safely host political speech. Now, the man attempting to defeat him will defend his position in an event that will be (partially) distributed via YouTube.

The media partners: As for the distributors themselves, both CNN and Jubilee have long operated at the intersection of politics and digital media. Way back in 2007, CNN hosted the first-ever “YouTube debate” as part of the Democratic presidential primary. Eventual election winner Barack Obama and several other Dems faced questions from viewers during the innovative event.

In the years that followed, the rise of long-form video convinced CNN to invest in documentary outlet Great Big Story and form a brief alliance with Casey Neistat. Now, creators have established themselves as influential political messengers—and CNN is eager to channel that credibility by partnering with a brand that has received millions of views online.

Jubilee has previously featured politicians like Talarico and Maryland Governor Wes Moore on Surrounded, a series that asks notable people to debate unconvinced opponents. Come October, the brand will continue to foster communication by distributing the VOD version of Talarico’s town hall on its YouTube channel.

CNN, meanwhile, will stream the event on its website and connected TV apps, with VOD content to follow.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

PLATFORM UPDATES

The update: Reaction content is hugely popular across YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Reels alike—but it’s also incredibly contentious. While many creators attribute clips (or even pay to license them) and add in their own original content, others just…well, steal stuff.

That form of pirating has given rise to a crop of creator-focused digital rights management companies. Some help creators reclaim revenue when their content is re-uploaded without permission, while others license out banks of UGC content from video makers who are credited and compensated for their work.

Now, YouTube is making its own contribution to that space.

At its most recent Made on YouTube event, the platform announced an update to Watch With. Originally introduced so creators could live-react to YouTube’s own “premium tentpole streams,” Watch With was expanded earlier this year to creator livestreams. Now, the feature is being applied by default to all creator-made long-form videos.

The details: In essence, YouTube is baking in a way for creators to make (theoretically) ethical reaction content fast, easy, and on-platform.

On the reaction creator side, anyone who goes live using Watch With to react will keep their ad revenue and any Channel Memberships they earn during their stream. Original creators, meanwhile, will receive both “attribution” and “added view credit” on their YouTube Studio analytics.

It’s not clear yet if that “added view credit” will cash out into AdSense revenue, or if the reaction creator is the only one earning money here—but either way, YouTube isn’t locking anyone into the arrangement. According to the platform, creators who don’t want to participate can turn off Watch With in YouTube Studio.

CREATOR COMMOTION

The creator: Just before COVID, filmmaker Alex Zarfati got involved in the making of a docuseries called Law of the Goat. But when he and his team went to pitch the film, it became clear that streamers were looking for projects that had major influencers attached.

So, Zarfati decided to become an influencer himself. He figured if he built the kind of digital presence the entertainment industry was looking for, he could reopen slammed doors without having to rely on outside influencers. But actually building that presence was a lot harder than he expected.

After a year of uploading videos to YouTube and “getting no views,” Zarfati decided to post something that was for him and him alone. That video (a behind-the-scenes look at one of his projects) popped off, drawing in the first filmmaking enthusiasts in an audience that has since grown to include 140,000 subscribers.

The process: Zarfati’s filmmaking process has evolved alongside his YouTube presence. He recently signed with Viral Nation, and his latest uploads explain how generative AI has made him “dangerously creative.”

Zarfati acknowledges that the use of gen AI is controversial, but says he thinks “there is something that is being unlocked for independent filmmakers that is a huge opportunity to make your small production feel a lot larger with the use of AI. These tools are given to us, and if you use them in a responsible way, it gives you limitless opportunity.”

Zarfati spent over a year filming Fail Safe (a tense FBI thriller that he’s currently shopping to film festivals) and is now working on The Divide, a project he’s not only writing and directing, but starring in. With Viral Nation, Zarfati and his projects have backing from Covering Agent Alonso Benavente and Head of Programming Paul Telner.

FYI: Viral Nation is a Tubefilter partner.

WATCH THIS 👀

The workaround: A new trend has taken over YouTube Shorts—but it’s not for the faint of heart (or stomach). A recent rash of clips shows creators preparing and consuming meat with cook times so brief that they’re more likely to deliver salmonella than high view counts.

YouTubers hoping to participate in that quick-cook trend face a clear dilemma. They can either eat the undercooked food and benefit from the shock value (something we certainly don’t recommend), or stay healthy but lose out on the hype.

One channel, however, has found a third option. By featuring two animated hosts, Capybluh has successfully tapped into risky video formats like the quick-cook trend without putting a single human creator in harm’s way. How’s that for a workaround?

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen.