Popular YouTube filmmakers are getting called out for undisclosed AI sponsorships

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A handful of well known filmmaking YouTubers, including Matti Haapoja and Sam Kold Kolder, posted videos this week showing off an AI video platform called Higgsfield and its new Seedance 2.5 feature. None of the videos were labeled as sponsored content, and neither the creators nor Higgsfield responded to questions about whether money or credits changed hands.

The backlash started when other creators began sharing screenshots of what appear to be outreach messages from PR firms working on Higgsfield's behalf, offering partnership deals to prominent channels. That led a lot of fans to conclude the whole thing was a coordinated push to make an AI tool look organically popular among people whose opinions actually carry weight in the filmmaking community.

What makes this particularly touchy is the audience these specific creators built their following with. Filmmaking focused channels attract viewers who care a lot about craft, technique, and camera work, and a decent chunk of that audience sees generative AI video tools as something closer to a threat than a helpful new lens option. Promoting a tool like that without clear disclosure reads very differently to that crowd than it would to a general tech audience more used to sponsored integrations.

This isn't an isolated incident either. Similar backlash hit creators who attended an OpenAI influencer retreat earlier this year, and there's a broader pattern forming where AI companies lean hard on creator marketing precisely because traditional advertising doesn't build the same kind of trust with skeptical audiences. The irony is that undisclosed deals like this one tend to torch exactly the trust they were trying to borrow

YouTube creators face backlash over AI partnership with Higgsfielddataconomy.com