TOGETHER WITH

It's Monday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

But first, ChatGPT celebrated its third birthday yesterday. The world has changed in a big way since the launch of OpenAI’s iconic chatbot turned the AI race into an all-out sprint to the finish line. Will ads be the next big thing for ChatGPT?

CREATOR COMMOTION

The Wiggles make a statement and MrBeast roots for community

The statement: Don’t worry: The Wiggles aren’t out to ruin your childhood. After inadvertently starring in a video set to Keli Holiday’s song “Ecstasy” in the aftermath of the Australian and UK TikTok Awards, the kid-friendly musical group issued a statement to confirm that they don’t, in fact, support illegal drug use. Personally, we’re relieved.

The community concern: Are YouTubers living “on separate planets”? MrBeast took to X in late November to voice concerns about the lack of creator collaboration in the YouTube community. His main question: “How do we get the YouTube community more tight knit like the Twitch streaming community?”

The AI influencer: According to a recent report from the New York Post, lifestyle creator Aitana Lopez makes up to $11,000 per month from social media. The catch: despite teaming up with brands like Amazon and posting viral travel content, the Instagram-famous star isn’t actually a real person.

The TikTok star: Marquay The Goat’s memory lives on. 24-year-old content creator Marquay Collins passed away on November 26, as announced by his mother Sonja Collins. The young star’s death was met with heartfelt tribute posts from fans and friends on TikTok, where he entertained a following of nearly 7 million.

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Who will win in a human vs. AI video editing showdown? Tune in to find out:

OpusClip is hosting a competition that will pit human video editors against its AI tool Agent Opus. The goal: highlighting where AI shines, where it falls short, and why human creativity still matters most.

On December 2, two teams—one with professional human editors and another with two untrained Agent Opus users—will compete in the first-ever live human-AI creation battle. Both teams will receive the same prompt and have exactly one hour to create a complete video. 

Will the professional human editors come out on top or will Agent Opus claim victory?

We already know the answer: Regardless of which team comes out on top, human creators win.

That’s because Agent Opus isn’t designed to replace human creativity; it’s designed to accelerate it with real and practical workflows that are helpful to creators. With Agent Opus, creators can complete 6-7 hours of work in just 60 minutes. The result: A creator economy with more accessibility and less burnout. 

Want to weigh in on the results of the Human Creator vs. AI showdown? Tune into the free livestream on OpusClip’s official YouTube channel at 9 AM PT to cast your vote for the People’s Choice winner (you might even win $5,000!).

PLATFORM HEADLINES

YouTube gets experimental and national platform bans raise eyebrows

The test feature: YouTube’s new promotable feed sounds familiar. Google’s video platform is testing a new type of feed that will allow users to shape their personal recommendation algorithm via text prompts. That experiment reflects Elon Musk’s plan to make X’s recommendation algorithm “purely AI” in order to give users the ability “to adjust your feed dynamically just by asking Grok.”

The feature expansion: In other YouTube news, the platform is expanding pre-publish checks. TeamYouTube has announced that the platform is testing a new feature “that checks for some Community Guidelines violations in the video upload flow, similar to Copyright and Advertiser-friendly Guidelines checks.” The goal: to help users “avoid the frustration of a removal or strike.”

The social media ban: Australia wants kids to stop using Twitch. The land down under has added Twitch to the list of platforms covered under an upcoming law that will ban users below the age of 16 from social media hubs. (Pinterest, on the other hand, still seems to be in the clear.)

The political pressure: Democrats want to know what’s up with the U.S. TikTok deal. The next deadline for ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok is coming up, and legislators are eager to know the details of the deal. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is the latest politician to press Trump for more information in the light of recent reports that suggest China might not be fully on board.

HOLIDAY HIGHLIGHTS

‘Tis the season for holiday music and creator marketing

The music mania: Is the holiday music fandom bigger than sports? According to Uproxx Studios CEO Jarret Myer, UPROXX’s Holiday Hits & Classics playlists attract at least 200 million monthly views during the holiday season, while channels with strong holiday catalogs see an average +89% view surge in Q4. Myer’s sports comparison: “The biggest games are massive—but holiday music owns multiple weeks, every year, across millions of living rooms at once.”

The mac ‘n cheese queen: It wouldn’t be the holidays without Tini’s mac ‘n cheese. A recent profile in Rolling Stone deemed Tineke Younger “TikTok’s Thanksgiving Queen,” and it’s not hard to see why. The culinary creator has made a name for herself by teaching TikTok fans how to make simple and delicious meals. Her iconic mac ‘n cheese recipe might not be the most intuitive of the bunch (viewers often comment on the difficulty of whipping up a roux), but it’s become an integral part of many fans’ holiday spreads.

The holiday marketing: MrBeast is going all out for the holidays. Over the last few weeks, our Top 5 Branded charts have been absolutely dominated by MrBeast videos sponsored by his snack brand, Feastables. YouTube’s most-followed creator has been on a mission to promote Feastables as the ideal solution for any and all holiday needs (from Halloween candy to stocking stuffers to holiday baking ingredients), but that’s not the only food brand on the beast’s promotional slate. In one of his latest videos, MrBeast reminded fans that he also launched his own branded meat sticks in partnership with frequent sponsor Jack Link’s.

WATCH THIS 📺

What if the stars of Dude Perfect had their own movie?

The creator trailer: Over the last few years, Sticks has attracted a devoted YouTube following by making fan trailers for some of the platform’s biggest stars. The creator has accumulated millions of views by uploading Netflix-style teasers devoted to the lives of top talent like Nick DiGiovanni, MrBeast, Ryan Trahan, and Emma Chamberlain.

Now, it’s Dude Perfect’s turn. The latest trailer to grace Sticks’ channel is a tribute to one of YouTube’s favorite basketball crews, and we’re pretty sure fans will agree that the 7-minute video is a slam dunk. Check it out here.

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