Good morning. On Saturday afternoon, dozens of people met in NYC’s Central Park to (literally) touch grass—a movement started by creator John Chungus. Or so we thought… 

This one has Anthpo written all over it. But whether it was Cheeseball Man 2.0 or not…at least people are getting outside.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

As AI continues to flood platforms, some tech companies are embracing new advancements while others are putting up roadblocks to more nefarious tech. Here’s the latest →

Spotify cracks down on AI. The platform has removed more than 75 million “spammy” or AI-generated songs in the past year, following a significant influx of AI-generated “artists” (some reaching hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners).

“Harmful AI content degrades the user experience for listeners and often attempts to divert royalties to bad actors,” Spotify said in a blog post. So? It’s rolling out new protections against AI:

YouTube doubles down. The platform is introducing Labs, a program “dedicated to exploring the potential of AI on YouTube.”

And Meta triples down. It launched Vibes, a feed made entirely of AI-generated content within the Meta AI app. 

Storytelling creator Hunter Prosper interviews strangers for upwards of three hours, distilling the conversation into short videos for 9 million followers. Questions go deep—think: “Who was your greatest love, and why did you fall in love with them?”

In Prosper’s new book, Stories From a Stranger, fans can read 100 exclusive stories in print.

Why a book? “I think there’s something really cool with pictures of someone as opposed to video because now your imagination fills in the nuance,” Prosper told us. “What does their voice sound like? You can insert a bit of yourself into the content.”

Prosper’s been releasing videos for four years, but the book (which released last week) is his first retail product. 

The key to being selective? Prosper works part-time as a nurse, which allows him to prioritize creativity over making money as a creator. He says each job “fills the other” to stave off burnout.

Zoom out: As the creator industry matures, depth of audience relationships is becoming more important than breadth or view counts—a common sentiment we heard among creators at Press Publish NYC. 

“As much good as my videos—I hope—bring to the internet, you’re still on the internet, then once you scroll past my video you might not see something as positive. With this book, you can put the phone down,” Prosper said.

Sponsored by Creator Startup

A while back, I was on a long car ride with Ryan Trahan. We’re talking, music’s on, and suddenly an alarm goes off on his phone.

He goes, “Give me 10,” puts in his AirPods, and just starts typing into his notes app. 10 minutes later he looks up and says, “Done.”

So what did he do? 

He wrote down 10 YouTube titles.

That’s it. No whiteboard. No brainstorm session with a team. Just him, training the muscle of coming up with ideas. And he does it every single day.

That’s when it clicked for me: Brainstorming is a habit. And it might be the most important one any creator can build.

So we built 50 in 5.

It’s a five-day sprint where we guide you through the same process. Each day, you’ll get a short video from us teaching you about YouTube and a creative prompt to write 10 new ideas. By the end, you’ll have 50 YouTube ideas…and more importantly, the habit that powers every successful creator I know.

It’s $25 and everyone who signs up will be invited to a live workshop Colin and I are hosting in October. 

👉 Join 50 in 5 today

— Samir

Streamer Ludwig Ahgren and STEM creator Michael Reeves are the first Americans to join the creator-led F4 racing event GP Explorer taking place this weekend—even though neither of them have driven F4 cars before.

About the event: French YouTuber Squeezie held the first GP Explorer in 2022 for 40,000 spectators and 1 million Twitch viewers. This year’s race will be the last—with Netflix, Lego, Subway, and Durex sponsoring and two dozen creators participating.

Big picture: This event feels reminiscent of MrBeast and Fede Vigevani’s “English-speaking vs. Spanish-speaking” basketball game from April. By bringing in more creators from different countries for his last event, Squeezie is contributing to the expansion of the global creator economy that platforms like YouTube have been prioritizing.