It's Tuesday and AI creator doppelgängers are on the way. Instagram has revealed the upcoming arrival of AI Studio, a tool that allows influencers to create custom chatbots modeled after their own personalities.

Today’s News

• 🇺🇸 MatPat is making his way to Capitol Hill

• Rhett & Link drop a trailer for Wonderhole

• 💀 Demonic asylums and creator lawsuits top the YouTube charts

• An Olympic chocaholic is charming TikTok users

MR. PATRICK WILL SEE YOU NOW

MatPat is going into politics. His first step: lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill.

The mission: After 13 years on YouTube and an emotional semi-retirement, MatPat is moving onto his next big adventure—and this time, he’s headed to Capitol Hill.

The Theorist co-founder’s mission: arming lawmakers with a basic understanding of the creator economy.

• Getting Washington’s finest up to speed is no easy task. In his new role as “a literal salesperson for a $250 billion industry,” MatPat told TechCrunch that he’s navigated basic questions like “what is Roku, and how is it different from YouTube?”
  
  

• Legislators’ lack of social media knowledge is nothing new. During congressional hearings, CEOs of platforms like TikTok and Facebook have often dealt with off-base questions from lawmakers wondering how free-to-use platforms monetize (hint: ads), why recommendation algorithms exist, and whether apps connect to WiFi.

The context: Those encounters have set a precedent that may be difficult to overcome. But if anyone’s capable of driving home the economic legitimacy of creator businesses, it’s MatPat. After launching Theorist Media in 2011, the creator and wife Stephanie Patrick expanded their brand to encompass five channels with a combined 45 million subscribers. They later sold that media empire to startup Lunar X in an acquisition that marked one of the first successful exits for a major YouTuber from their own channel (per TechCrunch).

Why it matters: That experience has given MatPat an expert understanding of creator brands as small businesses—a categorization that has never been formally designated despite the development of regulatory bills affecting social media platforms and their creator communities.

• Now, with MatPat as their advocate, creators are one step closer to being recognized as small businesses owners deserving of official designations, census data tracking, and tax breaks.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Good Mythical Morning hosts Rhett & Link have dropped a new trailer for Wonderhole, a scripted comedy show that follows the duo as they embark on a series of comical adventures. (Tubefilter)
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• Twitch is officially rolling out a mobile app update that centers a TikTok-style feed of recommended content. (The Verge)

• LinkedIn will pay plaintiffs $6.6 million to avoid a proposed lawsuit that accuses the platform of inflating views on video advertisements. (TechRadar)
  
  

• X owner Elon Musk provoked controversy earlier this week after posting a deepfaked political campaign that appeared to violate the platform’s own community guidelines. (The Verge)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: Ghostly asylums, Trump impersonators, and the woes of working out

Political memes ruled the internet this week. While TikTok users celebrated the rise of “Momala,” millions of YouTube viewers poured in to watch a presidential debate that (thankfully) will never come to pass.

• Of course, election content didn’t completely dominate Gospel Stats’ weekly rankings. Some viewers found a blissful escape from U.S. politics by immersing themselves in the underbelly of a “demonic asylum”—a fact that probably doesn’t bode well for our democracy.

🥇 Kill Tony x ExpressVPN: KT #672 – TOP SECRET
Biden might be out of the election, but that hasn’t stopped creators from contemplating the comedic potential of a second debate. The latest episode of Kill Tony—a comedy podcast hosted by Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redban—brought that concept to life with the help of some scarily realistic makeup and on-point voice acting.

🥈 Sam and Colby x Rocket Money: My Scariest Experience in Demonic Asylum (Trapped Alone)
Viewers without the stomach for Kill Tony’s mock debate turned their attention instead to Sam and Colby’s latest “demonic” journey. The ghost hunters survived a creepy asylum tour sponsored by Rocket Money, a brand that lent its financial weight to a total of 25 videos during the last full week of July.

🥉 Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell x Brilliant: We Need to Rethink Exercise – The Workout Paradox
Another five million fans tuned into Kurzgesagt’s latest video to find out why working out doesn’t always move the scales. The takeaway: human bodies love to turn food into fat—so if you’re exercising without results, you might need to get physics involved. Luckily, Brilliant has a course for that.

Want more YouTube sponsorship insights? Get in touch with Gospel Stats here.

WATCH THIS 📺

Olympians are taking over TikTok one chocolate muffin at a time

The muffin man: Most athletes take on the Olympics with gold medals and eternal glory in mind. Norwegian athlete Henrik Christiansen has his eye on a different prize: the chocolate muffins served at the Olympic Village dining hall.

• The freestyle swimmer’s earnest love for pastries has made him a fan favorite on TikTok. Over the last few days, Christiansen’s chocolate-fueled posts have garnered millions of views and even sparked a trend among other Olympians.
  
  

• Check out the swimmer’s latest ode to muffins here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.