YouTube Filmmakers Face Backlash Over Higgsfield AI Promotion

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Filmmaking YouTubers Matti Haapoja and Sam “Kold” Kolder published videos in late August 2026 promoting AI platform Higgsfield and its Seedance 2.5 video generation tool without labelling them as advertisements, triggering immediate audience backlash and a disclosure dispute that ended with the company confirming both creators were paid.

The two videos - which blend real footage with AI-generated imagery and frame Higgsfield’s Seedance 2.5 as the future of video production - were not marked as sponsored content. After The Verge published its report, Higgsfield PR manager Nuray Omarkhan stated that “the creators were compensated through a negotiated combination of monetary payment and Higgsfield credits.” Neither Haapoja nor Kolder responded to questions about the arrangement before publication.

The controversy accelerated when other creators began sharing what appeared to be screenshots of partnership offers they had received from PR firms working on Higgsfield’s behalf, strongly implying an organised influence campaign.

Haapoja’s video functions largely as a product walkthrough, including a demonstration of Cully Hill Boys - a feature-length film starring AI-generated duplicates of YouTubers Mikyle “N3on” Rafiq and Matt Kiatipis - produced entirely with text prompts. Kolder’s entry, titled “AI is replacing me,” wraps a product showcase inside a fictional narrative set in Mauritania involving a robot companion.

The critical response was uneven. Haapoja’s Threads post drew sharp pushback from peers, including Marques Brownlee, who rejected the comparison of generative AI to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Brownlee argued that unlike the DSLR - a physical tool filmmakers still had to master - generative AI is “trained on real human-made material without any credit.” Kolder’s YouTube comments section was more divided, mixing praise for transitions alongside remarks that “AI defeated our king.”

Practical takeaway: For creators and developers who build with or promote AI tools, this episode is a concrete reminder that audience trust is tied directly to transparency. Compensation in platform credits rather than cash does not eliminate disclosure obligations, and audiences are now actively circulating PR outreach screenshots to surface undisclosed deals. Anyone integrating AI tools into content - whether as a paid partner or a genuine enthusiast - should label that relationship clearly before publishing, not after a story breaks.

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