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It's Tuesday and here’s an AI collab we weren’t expecting. One day after greeting youths with the 6-7 sign, the pope is joining forces with the co-founder of Anthropic. |
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Today’s News |
🔍 YouTube expands likeness detection 🏆 MrBeast leads on YouTube 📈 This week on the branded charts… ⚽ The World Cup shapes trends 🐧 Behold: Love Island for penguins
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PLATFORM UPDATES |
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YouTube’s war on deepfakes is going global. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for YouTube.) |
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YouTube’s deepfake-fighting tech is now open to all creators over 18 |
The tool: As the issue of deepfakes continues to intensify, YouTube is doubling down on creator protection. |
The platform’s likeness detection technology—which locates AI-generated copies of human faces at scale—allows those who employ the tool to hunt down unauthorized deepfake videos. Until this week, access to that tech has been limited. |
Certain members of the YouTube Partner Program got their hands on the tool shortly after it was revealed last year, while journalists received access this March. A month later, Hollywood studios began taking the product for a spin. |
The expansion: Now, YouTube’s likeness detection tool is primed for its largest launch yet. As stated on a YouTube Help page, any eligible creator over the age of 18 will gain access to the tool “in the coming weeks.” |
To use the feature as intended, creators will need to find the “Likeness” option in the content detection tab within YouTube Studio, verify their ID, and share a selfie video. After that, they’ll be able to locate unauthorized facsimiles, request removal of those videos, and tell their fans to be on high alert moving forward. |
“With this expansion, we’re making clear that whether creators have been uploading to YouTube for a decade or are just starting, they’ll have access to the same level of protection.” |
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The wide rollout of likeness detection represents a firm statement of YouTube’s values. By keeping pace with the third-party services battling deepfakes, the platform is making it clear that its support of a “No Fakes” policy goes beyond mere lip service. |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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MrBeast’s primary hub isn’t the only channel climbing the charts. |
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GOSPEL STATS 📈 |
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Another week, another MrBeast challenge. |
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Top Branded Videos: Welcome to modern YouTube |
If you’ve spent much time on YouTube, Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded videos will be a smorgasbord of familiar names. MrBeast topped the charts by giving out $250K, Salish Matter hyped up her skincare collection, and even YouTube got in on the fun by sponsoring Sophie Silva. |
🥇 #1. MrBeast x Bass Pro Shops: I Stranded 100 People In The Wilderness For $250,000 (106M views)
MrBeast‘s appearance during the 50th season of Survivor seems to have inspired him. For this 40-minute video, the creator dumped 100 people in the wilderness to see how survivalists would stack up to amateurs until help arrived. On the bright side, at least those folks got some snazzy gear from the video’s sponsor, Bass Pro Shops.
🥈 #2. Jordan Matter (and Salish Matter) x Sincerely Yours: BEST FRIENDS vs COUPLE: The Truth Gets Exposed (20.6M views)
Like plenty of other Jordan Matter videos, this one centers on the relationship between his daughter Salish and her longtime friend Nidal. The video’s sponsor, however, represents a departure from recent uploads. Following the September 2025 launch of Salish’s skincare brand Sincerely Yours, most of her videos have been sponsored by Sephora. This time around, Sincerely Yours took over to promote an upcoming product launch party on May 30, which will welcome 2,000 hand-picked fans. |
🎰 #4. Sophie Silva x YouTube: seeing how RED CARPET looks are made #sponsored @YouTube (3.6M views)
Skipping ahead to #4, this week’s wildcard video was sponsored by none other than YouTube. It’s not often that we see the platform itself sponsoring content. But this clip from Sophie Silva is a promo for the Met Gala, which YouTube streams live with Vogue hosting. |
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights. |
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TOP 50 • MOST SUBSCRIBED |
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The Messinaldopocalyse would be a big win for YouTube soccer hubs. |
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YouTube soccer hubs are hoping for the World Cup match of the century |
The fan frenzy: Soccer is always a sensation on YouTube Shorts. The upcoming FIFA World Cup, however, has the potential to send fans into a full-blown frenzy—especially if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are involved. |
Many of YouTube’s top soccer channels are centered around the duo’s heated rivalry, and for good reason. Hubs that compare Ronaldo and Messi often get millions of views per week. But for all of their showdowns, the two soccer pros have never met on the pitch at the World Cup. If that changes in 2026, it will be a huge moment for YouTube soccer channels. |
Ronaldo’s Portugal is Group K for the upcoming tournament in North America, while Messi’s Argentina is in Group J. If Portugal wins its group while Argentina finishes third, the two superstars would face each other in a knockout match on July 3. |
The channel: That path is far from a foregone conclusion, but channels like Ro7 and Si10 are already feeding off fans’ hopeful anticipation. Buoyed by pre-World Cup hype, the U.S.-based hub added 532,000 new subscribers during the second week of May, bringing it to #15 in our ranking of most-subscribed-to YouTube channels. Ro7 and Si10 has pinned its stock to Ronaldo-Messi hype, so if the two stars face each other, we’d expect the hub to move into the top five—at least. |
Of course, channels like Ro7 and Si10 will continue to thrive even if the Messinaldopocalyse never arrives. Soccer content is crushing it on Shorts in the lead-up to the World Cup, and the numbers will continue to rise until it peaks during the tournament. But the size of that spike depends on Ronaldo and Messi. If the two aging GOATs can propel their respective countries to deep World Cup runs, the short-form numbers will skyrocket. |
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WATCH THIS 👀 |
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Forget the next season of The Bachelor—we’re focused on penguin breeding season. |
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What if Love Island had 100% more penguins? |
The penguin drama: Fans of romance-driven reality series are in for a feathery treat. Between seasons of Love Island and The Bachelor, an icier kind of drama is unfolding at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. |
The Utah-based nonprofit has gathered hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram with Love on Thin Ice, a short-form series that follows the complicated romances and rivalries of its resident penguins. If you thought rose ceremonies got tense, just wait until you see a female penguin bow to a coupled-up male (we’re looking at you, Ava). |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen. |
