YouTube star Cliff Tan apologized for promoting AI, but he doesn't regret it.
Tan, who came under intense backlash from fans after he posted a paid promotion for an AI company on Monday, told Business Insider that, like it or not, interior designers need to learn to use AI if they want to secure future work.
"You can't just avoid it forever," Tan said. "The industry is using it. You need to embrace it if you don't want to be out of a job."
Tan is based in London and runs a popular interior design YouTube channel called "Dear Modern" that has 2.4 million subscribers. He also runs a corresponding TikTok account with 3.6 million followers.
Though Tan apologized for the paid ad — which promoted Dreamina, a Chinese AI company owned by TikTok creator ByteDance — he didn't take it down from his channel. He told Business Insider that as an influencer, he wouldn't feel right ignoring AI's potential uses in architecture and interior design.
"I thought it was a bit irresponsible for me to just sweep AI under the carpet," he said.
In the ad, Tan uploads hand-drawn sketches to Dreamina and then uses the platform to transform them into an animated floor plan.
Tan said he took great pains to show his audience he wasn't blindly using the program to generate ideas, but rather to quicken what would otherwise be a lengthy process of rendering an animation.
The backlash came anyway.
"cliff no dont give in to the ai slop," one commenter wrote. "No, Mr. Cliff. Please. Don't sell yourself to AI," another wrote. That one has 1,800 likes.
Tan said he expected some negative comments, but not the tsunami that he ultimately received. "They felt like, 'oh, I am not the same as before,'" he said. "When they saw me jump on the bandwagon, they were very disappointed."
Dreamina, Tan said, initially wanted him to make the ad with a lot more pro-AI sentiment. Tan said he negotiated with the company to make an ad that was more "true to my followers" by incorporating his own doubts about AI into the video.
"I should say that you can use it, but only in the right way," Tan recalled thinking.
Creators of all kinds are increasingly coming under fire from their audiences for using AI. Hank Green, who makes educational videos about science and other subjects and is one of the internet's most reliable content creators, apologized to fans last week for relying on AI "too heavily" when researching his videos. He later shared a new AI policy for his channel.
In the world of influencers, where authenticity and quirkiness are necessary to maintain devoted audiences, the perception that a creator is using AI can damage their reputation and brand.
Tan, who described himself as "really, really analog," said he doesn't anticipate AI ever playing a role in how he makes his videos. He didn't, however, rule out future AI endorsements.
"If I see that it's valuable to incorporate the use of AI in the industry or to educate people in a way that is positive for their growth, I might," he said.
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Truman Dickerson is the Weekend News Fellow at Business Insider, based in New York City. He covers trending tech and business news. He previously reported for The Boston Globe's Express Desk. He graduated from Boston University, where he served as editor in chief of The Daily Free Press, BU's student-run newspaper.Contact him at [email protected]
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