AI-powered virtual YouTubers VTubers are making millions of dollars on YouTube

The popularity of virtual YouTubers (VTubers), who are entirely controlled by AI, is growing: one of the leaders of this movement, a character named Bloo, has already amassed 2.5 million subscribers and over 700 million views, earning seven-figure sums from gaming content.

Bloo, the hero of gameplay videos from Grand Theft Auto, Roblox and Minecraft, has bright blue hair and a 3D avatar reminiscent of Pixar or Fortnite characters. In an interview with CNBC, the virtual streamer said: "My goal is to entertain millions of viewers and keep them coming back for a new dose of content. I am created by humans, but controlled by AI."

The character was created by Dutch YouTuber Jordi van den Bussche (kwebbelkop). He notes that Bloo was born out of a desire to increase productivity: "The 'human' factor turned out to be a bottleneck, so it had to be removed. VTuber is the only way out." Bloo is still "tuned" by a human operator using motion and voice tracking, while editing, dubbing and thumbnails are generated by AI from ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Google Gemini and Anthropic.

Van den Bussche confirms that Bloo has already generated over $1 million in revenue. His ambitious goal is to launch a fully automated YouTuber, for whom AI will prepare scripts, shoot footage, and translate. However, the first attempts at fully AI-generated content are lacking in quality: "Algorithms do not yet have human intuition and creativity," he explains.

Meanwhile, tools are appearing on the market that bring full automation closer. Startup Hedra, which received $32 million in investment from Andreessen Horowitz in May, already offers Character-3, a platform for creating AI characters and videos up to 5 minutes long.

Character-3 is already being used for projects that garner millions of views: from the Talking Baby Podcast with a hyper-realistic baby to the virtual singer Milla Sofia.

At the same time, the number of "faceless" AI channels that generate videos based on text prompts without human intervention is growing and earn thousands of dollars every month. One such network of 50 channels releases up to 80 videos per day, aimed at an audience of retirees. Creators use TubeChef, a platform that automates the full cycle from idea to finished video for $18 per month.

At the same time, viewers are increasingly complaining about "AI slop" - low-quality content that fills feeds, and experts warn of the growing risks of disinformation. "We are losing the line between what is created by a person and what is invented by an algorithm," says Henry Eider, head of consulting firm Latent Space Advisory. However, the demand for AI content remains high, so the creators of "faceless" channels hope to continue to scale their networks.