It's Thursday and seven years after the death of Stan Lee, ElevenLabs is teaming up with Stan Lee Universe to add the Marvel co-creator’s voice and likeness to its AI platform.

Today’s News

🎙️ Colbert takes on TikTok
⚠️ YouTube updates AI labels
📋 Creators visit the “Brand Deal Desk”
🔍 Paris Hilton confronts deepfakes
🤝 MrBeast collabs with Neal Mohan

STAR POWER

Stephen Colbert, probably thinking about what he’s going to post next. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

How far can Stephen Colbert go on YouTube and TikTok?

The pivot: After hosting his final episode of CBS’ long-running Late Show, Stephen Colbert is switching gears. The star has set up his own channels on YouTube and TikTok under the simple handle @colbert—and both hubs have already attracted hundreds of thousands of fans. Over just a few days, Colbert has collected nearly 200,000 subscribers on YouTube and around 140,000 followers on TikTok.

Those fans are waiting in suspense to see what happens next. Colbert’s TikTok account is still completely bare, while his YouTube hub features just one hour-long video of his appearance on public access TV in Monroe, Michigan.

The context: That lo-fi program is a far cry from the splashy CBS fare that made The Late Show into a YouTube favorite more than a decade ago. Back then, late-night TV was thriving online, driven by a meta that valued long-form programming over quick-hitting Shorts. Colbert and CBS struck YouTube gold during that era.

These days, however, short-form feeds draw more viewership than long-form channels—and Colbert is well-positioned to take advantage of that shift. Comedy works better than most other categories on Shorts, and the former late-night star is a micro-humor pioneer.

The pithiness of the Colbert Report segment “The Word” harnessed the then-new idea of meme culture, and Only In Monroe suggests that Colbert is eager to return to that approach. His public access show has a distinct “Better Know A District” feel. With more videos like that, Colbert is primed to prove CBS wrong regarding its claims about declining Late Show viewership.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Prominent AI labels are coming into your feed.

Beginning this month, YouTube will automatically apply AI labels to videos when its systems pick up on “significant photorealistic AI use.” (Tubefilter)
Spotify and Netflix have reportedly joined forces on a deal worth up to $100 million to bring video versions of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast exclusively to their two platforms. (TheNextWeb)
Meta has begun rolling out a paid “Plus” tier on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, which ranges from $2.99/month to $3.99/month depending on the platform. (Engadget)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reversed course on predictions regarding AI and employment, noting that he “thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now.” (Gizmodo)

CREATOR COMMOTION

YouTube wants creators to get more brand deals for their series, so they put a series about brand deals on YouTube.

On YouTube’s new web series, creators explain the secrets of their sponsorships

The web series: YouTube has teamed up with Little Dot Studios to launch The Brand Deal Desk, a web series that demystifies the ins and outs of creator-brand partnerships.

Across five weekly episodes, the show’s creator hosts will discuss their own sponsorships, interview industry experts, and guide neophytes through a creator economy that has evolved into a $37 billion annual business.

“Creators today are building sophisticated media businesses, but navigating brand partnerships can still feel opaque…We wanted to create something that didn’t just explain the mechanics of brand deals, but reflected the realities of creator culture and the ambition of modern YouTubers.”

- Hal Arnold, Little Dot Studios Director of Production

The hosts: The YouTube stars sitting behind The Brand Deal Desk include Erin White (a businesswoman who shares stories from her creator journey), solo entrepreneur Grace Andrews (who offers dispatches from the life of a solo entrepreneur, and British comedian-slash-prankster Max Fosh.

In the inaugural episode of their new series, the trio defined a few industry terms, highlighted some of YouTube’s on-platform marketing products, and spoke with knowledgeable insiders like Sidemen manager Jordan Schwarzenberger.

The references to YouTube products help explain The Brand Deal Desk‘s raison d’etre. The platform’s brand deal playbook has changed a lot over the past decade, and creators now have a valuable resource that can help them keep up with the changes. To stay on top of new episodes of The Brand Deal Desk, viewers can subscribe to the YouTube Creators channel.

FIGHTING BACK

Paris Hilton knows a thing or two about defending likenesses.

Paris Hilton’s new TikTok series confronts the epidemic of explicit deepfakes

The docuseries: After the earliest versions of DALL-E and ChatGPT sparked a gen AI gold rush, experts warned that rapidly evolving technology could be used to target and exploit people—especially women. Fast forward to 2026, and explicit deepfakes are now more prevalent than ever before.

Paris Hilton is fighting back against that epidemic. Her production company, 11:11 Media, joined forces with Laurie Segall to make Searching for Mr. Deepfakes, a vertical docuseries that chronicles the tech journalist’s investigation into one of the web’s largest deepfake pornography hovels.

“My goal in sharing this story on my platform is to make it clear that protecting women and girls in the digital world is a responsibility we all share.”

Paris Hilton

The investigation: Segall has been reporting on the intersection of humanity and technology for 15 years and is the CEO of creator-led media/entertainment network Mostly Human Media. In Searching for Mr. Deepfakes, Segall works to take down a website that, at its height, got 17 million monthly views by catering to people who made money by generating nonconsensual deepfakes.

Segall partnered with fellow investigators and white-hat hackers to track down the site’s owner. Her series—which also spotlights survivors and advocates like Hilton, who was involved in promoting The DEFIANCE Act—dropped yesterday on Hilton’s TikTok account in 16 short-form parts. The first episode has since racked up over 2 million views.

Thanks to Segall’s investigation, the Mr. Deepfakes site was shut down in May 2025. But the threat of sexually explicit deepfakes continues, and so does Segall’s work.

The journalist previously reported on nonconsensual pornography, where people’s explicit photos are posted online against their will, and often without their knowledge. Now, “in this AI-driven era,” she says, “to become a victim, you don’t have to take a nude picture. You just have to exist.”

WATCH THIS 👀

What’s in the box?! We’ll find out when MrBeast hits 500 million subscribers.

YouTube’s CEO wants MrBeast fans to “smash that subscribe button”

The executive appearance: MrBeast is eight million subscribers away from his next big channel milestone. That might seem like a huge barrier for the average creator, but given that MrBeast is nearing the 500 million mark, eight million is practically a drop in the bucket.

The man known as Jimmy Donaldson is so close to hitting his goal, in fact, that YouTube CEO Neal Mohan made a personal appearance on his channel to urge viewers to “smash that subscribe button.” (If only so we can all find out what a 500M Play Button looks like.)