As companies like OpenAI whine that they can’t put out products without training their large language models on copyrighted material (including YouTube videos), more and more players within our industry are promising creators artificial intelligence-based services that only use their content with their consent. We’ve heard from AsqMe, from Spotter, and now there’s Icon, which pitches itself to businesses like this: “Partner with creators, turn 1 video into 20 videos with AI, and A/B test messaging to find winning ads.”
Icon’s core conceit banks on something YouTube asserted in July: that not all people are upset about generative AI being used to create deepfakes of them. (Worth noting: YouTube also, just this week, introduced more tools to help creators combat deepfakes.) Its business model pairs up brands and creators–one already on board is chess champ Alexandra Botez–and asks creators to film one video of themself with the product. Brands can …