YouTube’s New Rules Force Anonymous Creators to Show Their Faces—Or Hire Someone Else’s

Craig Billings, known to his 1.7 million subscribers as Doctor NOS, keeps getting calls from strangers who are upset. They run channels similar to his science-focused one, but they never show their faces. And their paychecks from YouTube have shrunk. “The people who do the same content as me without their face in it, most of them are getting demonetized,” Billings says.

The problem? A flood of AI-generated videos—often called “AI slop”—has prompted YouTube to tighten its rules. Faceless creators, who built audiences on automated or scripted content without appearing on camera, are now scrambling. Some are hiring cheap hosts from freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork to act as the face of their channels. Noah Morris, who runs six faceless channels, says this is becoming a common workaround. “Instead of doing everything faceless, you would just hire a host, similar to how Jimmy Fallon is also a hired host,” he explains.

AI tools have made it easier than ever to produce niche content without a human presenter. Alex Mashrabov, a former Snap executive and founder of the text-to-video model Higgsfield AI—now valued at $1 billion—calls faceless videos “a new, emerging category where solopreneurs and storytellers can thrive.” But thriving on YouTube has gotten harder. Morris says he lost $250,000 a month in early 2025 when YouTube shut down his faceless channels over a copyright dispute.

Billings tried launching a faceless fiction channel two years ago. It gained 40,000 subscribers quickly, but he abandoned it after noticing similar channels racking up millions of subscribers but then getting almost no views—a sign YouTube had stopped promoting them.

Not all faceless creators are struggling. AI characters like Teddy Pooh, a teddy-bear-poodle hybrid, have found audiences on Instagram. And some of the most successful faceless channels focus on narrow topics, like World War II. Simon Whistler, a British YouTuber who runs multiple channels on true crime, space, and history, is often cited as a model for the future. He records dozens of videos in a single sitting, reading scripts written by a team. “He is the prime model for where the space is going,” says Morris.

Brands, meanwhile, are still eager to work with faceless creators and AI influencers, using them to insert products into videos without relying on human talent. Stella Soribe, who helps African businesses make faceless videos, predicts the format will evolve. “We’ll see less generic and much more authentic type of content,” she says.

As viewers grow tired of AI-generated material, the most authentic content may be the kind that shows a real person. Face-full, as it were.