On June 21, 2025, Jimmy Donaldson — the creator of MrBeast, one of YouTube’s largest channels — launched an AI-powered thumbnail generator on his platform, Viewstats. The tool allows users to generate video thumbnails based on text prompts. However, a feature that mimics the style of existing channels and replaces a creator’s face using AI sparked backlash among other content creators and designers.
Many well-known YouTubers criticized the feature as “thumbnail theft,” pointing out the irony that MrBeast had previously accused another YouTuber, Vlad A4, of copying his style. Designers and members of the creative community argued that Donaldson’s tool undermines the work of visual artists. Popular streamer PointCrow publicly expressed his concerns, stating that while the idea of making content creation more accessible is good, this particular tool harms original creators rather than helping them.
Additionally, several bloggers pointed out that the thumbnails produced by Viewstats are of lower quality compared to similar — and much cheaper — alternatives on the market.
Following the criticism, MrBeast deleted the promotional posts from social media and announced plans to improve the tool. He clarified that the face-replacement feature would only be available for editing a user’s own thumbnails, not for replicating others’.
The beta version of the tool remains available via subscription at $80 per month.
It’s worth noting that in February 2025, Bloomberg reported Donaldson was in talks to raise investment at a $5 billion valuation. In March, The Verge revealed the amount under discussion was $200 million, with investors betting that Beast Industries would focus more on product sales than video content.
