The Dutch gamer and YouTuber Jordi Van Den Bussche, also known as Kwebbelkop, premiered an AI-ran VTuber of himself. After he experienced significant burnout, he thought of a way to make content without appearing on camera. On August 2, he announced that his VTubers character, named “The Digital Kwebbelkop,” will now be appearing on his channel of 15 million subscribers. 

Van Den Bussche’s AI tools aim to help influencers

Van Den Bussche’s company, JVDBStudios, has been developing his AI VTuber character for years. Using AI tools to make the character possible, he also aims the same for other influencers who need help making and uploading videos. 

As reported by Wired, there are two versions of the AI tool. The first one is trained to capture the person’s likeness, especially how they act on cameras. The second one simplifies the video creation process by taking simple prompts. Van Den Bussche’s goal is to help influencers overcome the human problem he had, which allows them to continue their brand without being stressed about creating more content. 

Van Den Bussche launched a VTuber character in 2021

The Digital Kwebbelkop is not Van Den Bussche’s first rodeo on making virtual characters. In April 2021, the YouTuber launched a YouTube channel called Bloo. The VTuber that appears in the channel was developed and powered by AI. The channel currently has almost 800k subscribers.

The creation and success of this channel inspired him to make more Vtubers in the future, one he just made for himself. According to Van Den Bussche, he has a waitlist of 500 influencer friends excited to use his AI tools.

Backlash against Kwebbelkop

While Van Den Bussche seems set on continuing making videos with his AI-ran VTuber, his audience isn’t happy. Currently, there’s just five videos featuring the VTuber model. However, every video has a massive like-to-dislike ratio, the highest being a one-to-three ration and the lowest being one-to-five. Also, in the comments, the general sentiment from Van Den Bussche’s is that they miss the human Kwebbelkop and worry about what this means for the future of the industry.

Is this the future?

As it currently stands, it doesn’t seem like AI is advanced enough to fool anyone that it’s an actual creator. But that doesn’t mean that could change. Once the technology improves — and it will — there’s all but certainty channels will use it to create content. It’s not unreasonable to believe that one day, some of the most popular channels on YouTube are entirely AI-ran, and their audience may not even know it. Sure, right now it’s apparent VTuber Kwebbelkop is AI-ran, but what about in one year, or five? Will we be able to tell?