AI is coming.
We are rapidly heading to the agentic age. This is going to have profound impacts upon everything. One area we are going to see a massive shift is with content creation.
Many people flocked to YouTube and created successful channels. That is a positive for humanity. People are now earning portions of the revenue generated from their videos via the advertising dollars paid to Google.
It is a model which, for those who are successful, is very profitable.
Is that the future?
In this article I will explain why most of those people will be wiped out and what the alternative is.
The Future Is Web 3.0: Most Web 2.0 Content Creators Will Be Wiped Out
Meta made news earlier this year with the introduction of AI friends on both Facebook and Instagram. This caused such a backlash that, I believe, the company reversed course.
Make no mistake, this is just a temporary situation. The world was not ready for it. That said, we are going to see it creep back in.
Interaction with AI is still something novel. People are conditioned, for obvious reasons, to interact with people. Over time, we are going to see this wane as the AI models improve further.
Even in the early days, we see people getting comfortable with spending hours interacting with chatbots for things such as research. Emotional interaction is one of the next phases.
Why do I bring this up and what does it have to do with content creation?
Ultimately, a great deal of content creation will be AI. The amount of information is exploding. This is mostly text but it is starting to move into images and video. Here we see enormous competition for present day influencers.
Interests change over time. The top banana of today was not there in the past. Down the road, someone else will take over. This is the nature of things.
What happens when a new set of influencers show up, gain popularity, and are not human?
Ownership Is Key
For the moment, Google is not as embracing of AI. While they allow the videos on their platform, revenue distribution is banned if I am not mistaken.
The main premise, from Google's point of view, is advertising. It is only concerned with getting videos watched. The company could care less who the content creator is.
Google has the advantage in that it owns the platform. The same is true for X and Meta. Whatever takes place there, regardless of the source, is to their benefit.
As we can see, this is not ideal for the content creators.
The shift to the overwhelming presence of AI content will mean that platforms come out further ahead. Those who have stake (or own) those platforms will do very well.
Here is where Web 3.0 enters.
Like most things with automation, income is drying up. This is the genesis of the debate about robotics and jobs. It is through employment where the majority of the global population gets the resources to survive. Jobs equal a paycheck.
Content creation is actually no different. If a content creator stops producing videos or articles, the cash flow dries up. At its core, it is still a job.
Ownership changes everything. It alters the responsibility that one has by bringing a host of new issues to the table. However, we also see the benefits changing.
In my view, a part of the solution to the loss of income is ownership stake in something. Within the digital world, this means people using platforms, at least in part, where they financially benefit. Again, we are not talking about income although that is still possible. Instead, we are looking at equity stake. Developing net worth can be tied to a host of other financial services such as staking or lending which can be used as a replacement for traditional income.
Success in the digital world depends upon network effects. Big Tech has mastered this. Google (YouTube) is not going to disappear anytime soon. In fact, it will likely get more popular as the proliferation of AI generated content becomes more acceptable. People will always seek information and entertainment. The only difference is how the viewed material is generated.
Web 3.0 ecosystems such as Hive offer an alternative. By having the base token, participants have the ability to enjoy the financial benefits of an increase in value. This is not something one gets from Google or Meta unless holding the stock.