Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Roblox teen millionaire, AI influencer at Wimbledon, YouTube vs AI spam + OpenAI’s browser battle

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MINI TECH SCROLL: Roblox teen millionaire, AI influencer at Wimbledon, YouTube vs AI spam + OpenAI’s browser battle · Mini Scroll

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  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:02
  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Friday.
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  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
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  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
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  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech
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  Scroll. I don't really have any updates
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  today apart from the fact that I did my hair differently, so it's
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  a bit of a forehead reveal. I don't think I've ever been on
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  the pod with my bangs clips back.
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  So if it looks weird, no, it doesn't.
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  Thank you very much. But yes, other than that, Please
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  remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  And if you want to support Centennial Weld in other ways,
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  please feel free to check out the Buy Me a Coffee link in the
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  description. OK, let's just get onto the
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  content for this week. My first story for today is
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  about how one teenager has made millions of dollars from selling
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  a game on Roblox. So I first saw this reported on
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  Bloomberg and the game in question is 1 called Blue Lock
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  Rivals. The game is based off a popular
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  manga series that is centered around soccer or should I say
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  football for our non Australian listeners.
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  It has since been adapted into various formats like ATV show
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  and like I mentioned a Roblox game.
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  According to the game description on the platform
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  quote, this fan made unofficial game is created by huge Blue
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  Lock fans as a tribute to celebrate the anime and share
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  our passion with the community. So the creator of the game is a
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  19 year old who has remained anonymous to the public eye.
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  He reportedly made the game in around 3 months and also had
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  help from various Co developers. As reported by Bloomberg quote.
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  It attracted more than 1,000,000 simultaneous players following
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  its release last year, the creator said, generating 5
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  million a month in purchases for Roblox Corp.
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  Do Big Studios, which creates, develops, manages and markets
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  games on Roblox ended up buying out the game and it was
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  reportedly out of the cost of $3,000,000.
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  I thought this whole story was pretty interesting because I do
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  think we are seeing Roblox become increasingly powerful or
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  influential in the creator economy where it is definitely a
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  formidable economic force these days.
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  According to the Roblox website quote in 2024 our creator
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  community and 923 million. We've paid our developer
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  community 3.3 billion since 2018.
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  The Bloomberg article also so added that the company's top 10
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  developers earned 36 million each in the 12 months through
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  March. The journalist also spoke with a
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  man named David Taylor, who is a senior consultant at a video
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  game analytics firm, where they noted that 7 out of 15 of the
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  highest earning games on Roblox have been acquired from their
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  original owners. This is partly because things
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  have changed on the platform, making selling and switching
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  ownership of games easier. Clearly Roblox is very
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  lucrative. There seems to be a lot of money
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  here and something that I think will only grow as Gen.
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  Alpha continues to come of age. It's been reported over the
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  years that Gen. Alpha is a massive gaming
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  generation, which totally makes sense.
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  But even though Roblox is definitely lucrative, there are
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  some risks since the popularity of these games like definitely
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  ebb and flow, as does much of Internet culture these days.
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  It all depends on that like 1 viral moment.
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  But I definitely think developing games and selling
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  games is an interesting way to make money within the creator
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  economy. I definitely think this kind of
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  work, even though it does require a specialized skill set,
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  is overlooked when it comes to making money in the creator
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  economy. I feel like we're often
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  discussing things like, you know, streaming and live gifting
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  and TikTok shop and affiliate links.
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  But yeah, this is definitely a different Ave. but I think it is
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  a powerful one. OK, the next story is a bit of a
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  tech slash Internet culture crossover because I wanted to
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  talk about this AI influencer that was going viral.
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  Viral at Wimbledon. So creator Mia Zelu is going
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  completely viral for her photos at Wimbledon, but not for the
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  reasons that you may think. So the account posted a photo
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  dump from Wimbledon on July 7th, which quickly started gaining
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  traction. The post included pictures of
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  Mia at what appeared to be a tennis match, along with various
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  food and drinks. It was captioned quote still not
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  over the event, but the party's a whole other game.
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  While I'm not sure if this caption entirely makes sense
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  unless I just I'm having comprehension issues, this seems
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  like a fairly regular post for an influencer.
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  The catch is though that Mia is AI generated.
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  This is something that is disclosed in her bio with part
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  of it reading quote Digital storyteller and Influencer AI.
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  After this post started gaining traction, it seems like many
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  Internet users were treating her as real.
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  Like if you scroll through the comments you can see people
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  commenting on her post like they would any other influencer.
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  Obviously this led to quite a bit of coverage across different
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  publications. Oddly enough though, after this
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  all took place, Mia posted a video singing a song about how
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  she doesn't want to be famous or quote just be a face in the
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  feed. So that was referencing all the
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  publications that had written about her after this incident.
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  And let me just say, while I can understand while instant users
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  could fall for her pictures not being AI, the video is
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  definitely a little bit harder to believe.
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  I will inside it here so you can see for yourself.
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  Now I wanted to talk about Mia, not because she is like the
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  first virtual influencer, they've definitely been around
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  for a while, but because this story highlights how good AI
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  generated content is getting and how blurry the lines are
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  becoming between AI influences and reality.
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  So I kind of wanted to use Mia as a jumping off point to
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  discuss like the relevance, necessity, and influence of
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  these kinds of creators. As AI becomes increasingly
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  common and slot dominates the digital space, I really am
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  unsure how I feel about AI influences in this capacity.
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  On the one hand, I do think it's kind of cool as like an art
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  project or digital kind of character building, but on the
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  other hand, it definitely feels a little bit dystopian.
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  For one, we often don't know who is behind these AI influences.
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  In Mia's case, that info isn't really public from what I could
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  find. And that definitely raises
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  questions about intent to me personally.
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  Like is this part of a bigger marketing ploy or a brand
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  strategy or even just like a personal project?
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  We really don't know. And obviously intent matters in
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  this scenario. Granted, I don't think you can
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  really know a regular influences true intentions, but I
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  definitely think it's easier to gather Intel and like
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  essentially vibe check them because they're a person
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  creating the content and presenting that to you.
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  The case of Mia though, I also found particularly interesting
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  because in her song she really doubled down on the fact that
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  she doesn't just want to be a face on the feed and is wanting
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  to change the world for the better.
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  And at the end of the day, we don't know what she stands for.
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  And I think it's pretty insidious because AI, well, it
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  definitely has very useful and important applications, is
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  really transforming social media and not all of it is good.
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  Case in point is what we discussed last week about AI
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  Slop being extremely racist. In a similar vein, as AI
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  influences become more and more common, I am wondering how this
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  will affect the creator economy as a whole.
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  Especially whether AI will be taking commercial opportunities
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  and jobs from real people. Especially if brands are willing
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  to just create their own influences to reach a certain
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  market. I will say this is something
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  that is already happening. When I was researching for this
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  episode, I found that there are agencies dedicated to kind of
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  curating AI powered models and avatars.
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  I did find one called the Clueless that specializes in
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  this kind of content and one of their services is to create
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  custom avatars for brands. This whole thing, while it is a
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  little bit different, it kind of reminds me of the whole Anna OOP
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  scenario. I don't know if you guys
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  remember this, but there was a tea channel called Anna Oop and
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  it was exposed for essentially being part of an organization
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  that was content farming. These AI influences, I think,
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  can hold a similar risk where, like I said, we don't really
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  know the intention or whether a brand or person behind it is
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  trying to push a specific agenda or have a specific goal based on
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  the audience. And another point on these AI
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  influences, and one that I've seen discussed a little bit so
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  far, is that women are already having to live up to impossibly
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  high and unrealistic beauty standards.
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  And the idea of having to compete quote UN quote with
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  perfectly curated idealized AI generated influences does
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  concern me, especially because once again, as we discussed last
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  week, much of the AI is trained off humans and harbors biases.
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  While I feel like I've been very negative about this whole thing,
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  I am probably a pessimist in this scenario.
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  I will say there is a flip side. AI influencing does lower the
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  barrier to entry for some people.
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  I think it allows people to participate in the creator
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  economy without compromising their privacy, which is
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  something I think more and more people will turn to.
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  As you know, the Internet becomes more intense, more
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  polarized and doxing becomes a more common.
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  Instead of showing their face, they can find a different way to
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  participate by creating a fictional persona.
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  Obviously this is a benefit to the person creating the account.
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  There are clearly issues for people consuming that account in
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  my opinion. At the end of the day, while
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  there are pros and cons, I don't really know how I feel about it.
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  I found it fascinating but also a little bit bleak.
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  Like I said, I could just be pessimistic, but I'm curious to
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  hear what you guys think of these AI influences, whether
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  it's something that excites you or doesn't really, or you think
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  it's just another way to build community or not really.
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  I am just very open to your thoughts.
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  Speaking of AI, I do have a bit of an update based on last
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  week's episode, so I know I've already touched on it a little
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  bit this week. But if you missed last week, I
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  spoke about the rise of AI slop on TikTok, with much of it being
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  extremely racist and discriminatory.
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  I was fairly harsh, rightfully so though, because I spoke about
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  how many platforms are not doing enough to combat this kind of
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  content because it fosters engagement and at the end of the
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  day, engagement is the currency of the online world these days.
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  Anyway, it has been reported that YouTube is preparing for a
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  crackdown on what they define as mass produced videos, which many
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  are believing will impact AI generated content.
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  So to do this they are quote UN quote clarifying the language in
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  their policy guidelines as YouTube's policy page reads
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  quote. In order to monetize as part of
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  the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube has always required
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  creators to upload original and authentic content.
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  On July 15, 2025, YouTube is updating our guidelines to
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  better identify mass produced and repetitious content.
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  This update better reflects what inauthentic content looks like
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  today. This has been branded by YouTube
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  as a minor move. This is how Renee Ritchie, who
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  is a content creator but also the head of Editorial and
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  creator Liaison at YouTube, described it as.
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  He added that the goal of this update is quote to help better
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  identify when content is mass produced or repetitive.
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  This type of content has already been ineligible for monetization
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  for years, and its content viewers often consider spam.
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  After the announcement of this update, there was quite a bit of
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  panic around it. And I think that often comes
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  with the territory when there are updates to the YouTube
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  Partner Program. But YouTube, through people like
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  Renee Ritchie, has sought to ease the panic and tension.
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  They doubled down on the fact that this was just an update to
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  the existing policy. When it comes to AI
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  specifically, though, the clarification that they made
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  read Quote. We welcome creators using AI
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  tools to enhance their storytelling and channels that
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  use AI in their content remain eligible to monetize.
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  And they added that mass produced content in this context
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  refers to things like Quote a channel that uploads narrated
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  stories with only superficial differences between them, and
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  the channel that uploads slideshows that all have the
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  same narration. So I'm not sure if the updated
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  policy text has been released yet.
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  I know they said July 15th and I'm aware that the date on mini
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  scroll does say that it is July 16th, but that's obviously
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  because we are based in Australia so we are a day ahead.
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  When I was researching though, there hadn't been any changes
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  that I could see, but this was just something I wanted to note
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  because these platforms definitely need to constantly be
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  doing more and addressing these problems.
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  With that being said, I have seen this move by YouTube being
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  reported as quite significant in protecting and stopping AI slot,
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  but considering how YouTube is addressing the situation, I'm
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  hesitant how much this can do to change the trajectory that went
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  on. But I guess we will just have to
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  wait and see. OK, and my last story for today
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  is that we need to talk about the AI browser battle that is on
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  the horizon. Earlier this week it was
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  reported by Reuters that Open AI is close to releasing an AI
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  powered web browser and it is seeking to challenge Google
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  Chrome, which is the most used browser globally.
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  As the article reads quote, the browser is slated to launch in
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  the coming weeks, 3 of the people said, and aims to use
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  artificial intelligence to fundamentally change how
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  consumers browse the web. It will give Open AI more direct
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  access to the cornerstone of Google success, user data.
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  So Chrome is a major tool that Alphabet, which is Google's
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  parent company, uses to understand how to target its
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  users with ads. So that would obviously be an
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  asset to Open AI if they managed to convince users to come across
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  to their browser because it opens the door to more targeted
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  monetization opportunities and strategies.
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  Whenever I read stuff about this or just kind of talk about it,
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  it honestly makes me depressed. Like why can't we be building
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  products just to provide access to quality information?
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  Like capitalism truly runs deep and it makes me uncomfortable.
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  But anyway, aside from Open AI though, we have seen Perplexity
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  AI launch Comet recently, which is another AI browser.
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  According to Tech Radar quote, Comet is Perplexity AI's agentic
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  Chrome competitor that mixes the world of AI assistance with web
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  browsing. Simply put, you can access the
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  Perplexity assistant from within Comet at any point and ask it to
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  perform tasks on your behalf. Obviously, with companies like
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  Open AI and Perplexity coming for Google in this way, it's
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  definitely going to change how we consume and comprehend
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  information online. No longer will we be necessarily
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  searching up questions and then clicking and searching around to
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  find our answer. It's likely that you know
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  instead of clicking through these links, we will just be fed
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  a paragraph or so of information.
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  According to Reuters reporting, this does seem to be a reality
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  where Open AI's browser will allegedly have a similar
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  interface to ChatGPT instead of making users click through
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  websites. I'm also wondering what, in our
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  opinion, will make an AI browser a good one.
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  People may opt for Google Chrome over Safari because it might be
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  quicker and easier to navigate. I think those characteristics
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  will still matter, but I do think there's a little bit more
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  of a quality control issue because it's not just about
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  speed, it's about what it generates and where it pulls
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  from. Either way, it definitely does
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  feel like this is the direction that browsers are heading
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  towards. OK, well, I guess that is
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  everything from me this week. Lauren will speak to you
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  tomorrow and I will chat to you next Wednesday.
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  But yes, thanks for listening. Bye.