Monetizing Generative AI: YouTubers' Collective Knowledge on Earning from Generative AI Content
Shuo Niu, Yao Lyu, He Zhang, Na Li, Bumjin Kim, Jie Cai
TL;DR
This analysis analyzes 377 YouTube videos in which creators publicly promote workflows, revenue claims, and monetization strategies for GenAI-enabled content, and conceptualizes creators'collective understanding and adoption of GenAI in the context of monetizing creative labor.
Abstract
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping creative labor by enabling the rapid production of text, images, and videos. On YouTube, creators are developing new ways to leverage these tools and share knowledge about how to pursue income through such strategies. However, little is known about what GenAI knowledge has been collectively constructed around monetizing GenAI as a community practice of acting both with and against algorithmically mediated platforms. We analyze 377 YouTube videos in which creators publicly promote workflows, revenue claims, and monetization strategies for GenAI-enabled content. Our analysis identifies ten shared use cases that frame AI-supported income opportunities, and examines how this GenAI knowledge repository embodies a collective effort to leverage platform infrastructures for monetization -- including advertising, direct sales, affiliate marketing, and revenue-sharing models. We further surface structural tensions in AI-mediated creative labor, including unverifiable income claims, content misappropriation, synthetic engagement practices, and shifting authorship norms. We conceptualize creators' collective understanding and adoption of GenAI in the context of monetizing creative labor, with implications for the design of creator-centered GenAI technologies and responsible platform policy.