MrBeast has removed a YouTube thumbnail generator that used artificial intelligence (AI) after a backlash from creators.

The world’s most-subscribed YouTuber, real name Jimmy Donaldson, released the tool last week and said his intention had been “to help smaller creators make better thumbnails”.

But he admitted he had “missed the mark” after it was criticised by other high-profile YouTubers, including PointCrow and Jacksepticeye, who said the tool “steals” creators’ work.

In a post on X, MrBeast said he’d decided to remove the tool from his YouTube analytics platform Viewstats and would replace it with links to human artists available for commission.

When he launched the AI thumbnail tool last week, MrBeast said, he “thought people were going to be pretty excited about it”.

The small preview pictures are a key part of any YouTuber’s strategy, and are used to catch the eye of potential viewers as they scroll through a sea of content.

Mr Beast’s tool was advertised as “taking the guesswork out” of designing eye-catching images for an $80 (£58) per month subscription.

It gave users the option to insert themselves into existing thumbnails and recreate the work of other creators.

Generative AI – or GenAI – tools such as this are trained on mountains of exisiting data, which are then used to create outputs in response to user prompts.

There are several current court cases examining accusations of copyright theft against companies that make AI models.

PointCrow, real name Eric Morino, accused MrBeast of making “something that can steal… hard work without a thought” and alleged that the AI model was “clearly trained on all our thumbnails and uses them without any creator’s permission”.

While the US streamer said the intention of making content creation more accessible was a “great idea”, the tool “fundamentally hurts creators as a whole”.

MrBeast acknowledged the feedback and told his followers: “I care more than any of you could ever imagine about the YouTube community.

“Obviously I’m the biggest YouTuber in the world and I don’t take that responsibility lightly and so it deeply makes me sad when I do something that people in the community are upset by.”

He said his goal with Viewstats had been to build tools to help creators, “but if creators don’t want the tools, no worries”.

The US YouTuber has more than 385 million subscribers on the site and is thought to be its highest-paid creator.

He has a number of other business ventures and last year hosted Beast Games, an Amazon series which saw 1,000 people competing in a series of elimination challenges for a $5m (£3.9m) cash prize.

The series was named in a lawsuit where some contestants claimed they’d been “exploited” during filming – allegations MrBeast said had been “blown out of proportion”.

In May, the Mexican government accused him of “exploiting” the Mayan pyramids for a video and the month before he had to apologise after fans had a “horrible” experience at a Las Vegas event in his name.

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