‘VTubers’: Positive Trend or Hideous Fad?

If you’ve been on social media recently, you might have noticed the increasing prevalence of a new kind of content creator: ‘VTubers’, or ‘virtual Youtubers’. These content creators are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and digital avatars to redefine how online content is presented and displayed, and have managed to garner billions of views and millions of subscribers along the way.

In this article, we examine how these creators produce their content, the positive and negative aspects of this trend, and its significance.

What Are VTubers?

To better understand VTubers and how they are different, here’s a basic overview of traditional content creation.

From a professional film production and video editing perspective, a typical seamless engaging narrative can be divided into two parts: A-roll and B-roll. A-roll refers to the primary footage, including direct dialogue and other action essential to pushing the narrative forward. This is also where the content creators usually directly address the audience in front of the camera. B-roll complements A-roll with oftentimes non-dialogue footage, adding to the visual interest of the video. Although this pattern isn’t always immediately recognizable, it can be found in all kinds of digital media from big-budget movies to home-made TikTok.

VTubers don’t change the fundamentals of content creation; however, instead of the creator appearing in their videos, they are replaced by AI-powered digital avatars. These avatars are ‘puppeteered’, meaning humans control their facial expressions, movements, and voice in real-time using face-tracking or motion capture technology (which can be done using webcams or facial-recognition hardware). Some content creators even replace their voice with an AI clone or a new AI-generated voice altogether.

Positives of the VTuber Trend

Like the two sides of a coin, everything has its benefits and drawbacks, and the VTuber trend is no exception.

On the one hand, VTubers offer more efficiency and flexibility for content creators.

One of the most popular gaming YouTubers, Bloo, is in fact a VTuber. Made by Jordi van den Bussche (kwebbelkop), Bloo has amassed a following of 2.5 million subscribers through videos of him playing mainstream games such as Roblox and Grand Theft Auto. When asked in an interview why he transitioned from traditional content creation to VTuber, he said: ‘Turns out, the flaw in this equation is the human, so we need to somehow remove the human.’ Indeed, since his content creation process is largely done by AI with minimal human intervention, it has greatly improved his productivity as a YouTuber.

Furthermore, VTubers has also enabled content creating to be easily accessible to everyday people - you don’t need to have special training or years of experience to become a successful VTuber, you don’t need to spend tons of money buying professional equipment, you’re privacy is preserved, and you don’t have to appear on camera. It also allows for unprecedented flexibility, such as with the branding of the channel and the customizable appearance of the avatar.

In addition, because you’re creating far more videos than traditional content creation, becoming a VTuber also allows for mass monetization; some creators are earning millions through their videos, livestreams, etc.

The Disturbing Side of the VTuber Trend

On the other hand, the VTuber trend isn’t all sunshine and roses, with critics saying it has an extremely sinister side to it.

To understand why people say that, we need to take a quick look at AI content farms. Another manifestation of the toxic content farms on social media platforms like YouTube, most (if not the entirety) of the content from AI content farms is created by artificial intelligence. This includes everything from script writing to video creation to animations.

Usually, a social media account has a production team behind it. However, AI content farms don’t have production teams - it’s just one person with a computer. Yet they can crank out far more content than normal channels, with uploads once or even multiple times per day. By creating truckloads of low-quality content in a short amount of time, they can earn a lot of money. However, there isn’t any actual creativity or knowledge, just brainrot content. Oftentimes, these content farms target young children, the most vulnerable online population, for views, likes, and subscribers.

What makes some people think the VTuber trend isn’t anything to be excited about is that the line between VTubers and AI content farms is blurry and unclear. Some YouTubers like kwebbelkop have faced significant backlash from audiences who say they are purely monetizing their videos and not creating original, meaningful content.

Conclusion

So, what do you think about the VTuber trend? Does it represent a highly innovative form of social media content, or are they shifting towards becoming AI content farms? Either way, this trend is undeniably changing the entire landscape of content creation.

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