Blogroll

VidCon is an annual gathering for video creators, especially YouTube creators, and this year Mashable joined the fray. Our digital culture and shopping reporters are on the ground at the Anaheim Convention Center to check out the top panels and events — and to talk to as many creators as possible.

So, what's trending among the trendsetters?

We kept our eyes peeled for gadgets, tech accessories, cameras, and cute carry-alls as we roamed the VidCon 2025 convention room floor. Keep an eye on our new In My Bag series for more influencer-approved product recommendations.

And in the meantime, here's a recap of all the tech products we spotted at VidCon 2025.

The creator-approved selfie light

Have you heard of the Alix Earle selfie light, or have you been living off the grid? TikTok creator Alix Earle first recommended this simple clip-on camera light in a 2022 video, and it's been an Amazon bestseller ever since. TikTok creator Sa Nguyen told Mashable that she depends on this high-powered LED light to make content for her 4.3 million followers, but you don't need to be a TikTok "it girlie" to benefit from the spotlight.

Plus, it's on sale.

Opens in a new window Credit: Newmowa Newmowa 60 LED High Power Clip-on Light $25.49 at Amazon
$29.99 Save $4.50 Get Deal The vlogger's secret weapon: The DJI Osmo Pocket 3

We first reviewed the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera when it was first released in 2023, and it's still the undefeated champion of gimbal cameras. Any time we attend an event with a lot of influencers, we know we'll see this pocket camera everywhere, and so it was at VidCon 2025. Mashable Shopping Reporter Sam Mangino said she's spotted this popular camera all over the Creator floor, where "folks seem to be using it to vlog on the floor." This 4K camera is small enough to slip in your pocket, yet it can take professional-quality video in vertical and horizontal formats.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera $799 at Amazon
Shop Now A personal fan

You know what's cute? Ghost lashes. You know what's not? Sweat. And as the world gets warmer, sweat is a very serious problem for folks dedicated to streaming as much of their daily life as possible. As Mashable reporters walked the VidCon 2025 convention floor, one gadget was inescapable: handheld portable fans.

Opens in a new window Credit: Gaiatop Gaiatop personal handheld fan $7.99 at Amazon
$9.99 Save $2 Get Deal Canon PowerShot V10

The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is a godsend for creators who shoot outdoors and in crowded spaces, but it's also expensive. For creators at VidCon 2025 looking for something more economical, the Canon PowerShot V10 is the weapon of choice. This video camera can stand up by itself at any angle and is compact enough to take anywhere.

Opens in a new window Credit: Canon Canon PowerShot V10 camera $399 at Amazon
$429 Save $30 Get Deal A Sony vlogging camera

It's a tough question for creators: Canon or Sony? Both companies make more-than-capable video cameras for content creators, but creators have told us they enjoy using the Sony ZV-1F Vlog Camera for Content Creators and Vloggers. It has a built-in microphone array with a wind shield, and the Ultra-wide 20mm lens is ideal for filming YouTube videos in particular. If you need a pro-quality vlogging camera for under $500, it's one of the best.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony ZV-1F Vlog Camera for Content Creators and Vloggers $498 at Amazon
Shop Now The editing software of choice? Final Cut Pro

TikTokkers can keep CapCut. At VidCon 2025, it's all about Final Cut Pro. For Apple users who shoot and edit their own content, this Mac video editing software is indispensable. So far, it's the single most-recommended product we've encountered in conversations with creators. A subscription will set you back $299.99, but there is a free trial to test it out.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Final Cut Pro $299.99 at Apple
Free trial available Shop Now A portable hard drive

Creator Nicole Rafiee told us she relies on the SanDisk 1TB Portable SSD to store all her content, and she's not the only one. Not only is this an extremely popular hard drive (Amazon sells more than 8,000 monthly), but you'll also find it in the bags of Mashable's own reporters and editors.

Opens in a new window Credit: SanDisk SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD $99.99 at Amazon
$129.99 Save $30.00 Get Deal A flexible yet durable tripod

Photographers and videographers love this Joby tripod, and it's been a very common sight on the convention floor at VidCon 2025. (See if you can spot it in our review of the GoPro Hero 13 Black camera.) You can pick it up at Amazon or your photography retailer of choice.

Opens in a new window Credit: Joby JOBY GorillaPod 3K Ballhead Tripod Kit $69.99 at Amazon
Get Deal A professional microphone

Look, we love an adorable little pocket mic as much as the next person. But if you're really trying to succeed as a YouTuber or TikTokker, sometimes you need to upgrade your hustle – and your equipment. Mashable Shopping Reporter Samantha Mangino says she's seen this microphone all over VidCon so far.

Opens in a new window Credit: Rode RODE VideoMic Pro+ Camera-Mount Shotgun Microphone $294 at BH Photo & Video
Shop Now

Mashable will be live at Anaheim Convention Center this week covering VidCon 2025. Check back in the days ahead at Mashable.com, where we’ll be talking to your favorite creators, covering the latest trends, and sharing how creators are growing their followings, their influence, and making a living online.

Mashable reporters Christianna Silva, Bethany Allard, and Samantha Mangino contributed to this article.

The iPhone comes with a built-in file manager called Files. While you may be using it to access, organize, and manage files stored locally or in iCloud, there are many more things it's capable of doing that aren't immediately apparent.

While YouTube has evolved significantly over the years, it was always missing one basic feature found in most audio and video apps: a sleep timer. Spotify, Audible, and nearly every other media app had one, but YouTube still chose not to include it—until recently.

Microsoft Authenticator, a popular app for generating 2FA codes and storing passwords, has supported password autofill for years. However, that is all going by the wayside. Here's how to save your passwords, and what you can use instead.

To consume the news is no longer a simple matter of opening the newspaper or turning on the television. Now, more than ever, America's number one news source is social media. But in a sea of infographics, how is one to find trusted sources?

V Spehar, perhaps better known by their handle UnderTheDeskNews, provides thorough and informative news in a comforting package.

While V used to take news hits from under the safety of their desk, they've come out from under the desk and are encouraging their audience to do the same. To no longer be scared of the world and instead come out of hiding. As both a journalist and a content creator, V made a promise to their audience to deliver the news in a safe way to protect everyone's emotional health. Nearly five years on the job, they're still holding up their end of the bargain even as the news cycle gets heavier each day. At VidCon 2025, we sat down with V to discuss how they've grown their platform without losing audience trust.

In 2020, V Spehar pivoted from culinary to news content and UnderTheDeskNews was born. Credit: V Spehar / Røde / Mashable I would love to know what freedom content creation has given you as a journalist?

My whole life, I thought that if I could just get this job in the industry, then I'd be set for life, and I'd be comfortable. I'd have achieved something. And when I was the director of impact for the James Beard Foundation, I felt like I had achieved that. But I didn't. When I got the big girl job, I didn't feel super comfortable or taken care of. When I started making content, I had no expectations. I just did it for fun to start off. And now I have actually created the life for myself and the financial structure for myself that no amount of doing it the right way was giving me.

I hear that from many creators. I think content creation gives people a sense of empowerment.

It is just as hard for me to be a content creator and own Spehar Entertainment, which is the LLC that everything goes through. And we chose entertainment, intentionally mocking the Fox Entertainment, because I was afraid to be like, "I'm not gonna establish myself as a media company. That's so scary. I'll just be entertainment." I work just as hard, but I have more control of myself and my time. And I come to find out I love working with people. I don't love being in a corporate structure.

You're an essential news source for so many young people. How does that affect your approach to content creation?

Because I came into this a little bit older, and I had already established successful businesses before, I knew the thing I needed to start with was a promise to the audience — What am I selling? What's the product? And the product and the promise is that I will give you the day's news and events in a kind way from a safe space. I will give you current political topics that center [on] your emotional safety to learn. And that is the north star and the ethos and the boundary and the gutters of every single thing that I make.

I've spoken to a lot of creators about how they feel like it's really important to find a niche. Do you feel like it was that under-the-desk format that gave it a certain angle?

I think that was a visual representation of the promise. And as time went on and I gained their trust. I haven't actually been physically under the desk in over a year because the vibe is still there, the promise is still there, under the desk. It was a mandatory visual representation of what I was promising, and I had to be good on that promise long enough to come out of that box. I still like being under the desk sometimes, and if something's really sad, then we go back under the desk.

When Trump got elected, I said, "OK, I'll do the first 100 days under the desk." And I did, but it was actually making people a little sad, because they were like, "Oh, we're back hiding."

When I started to be out in public, and I started doing speaking gigs or going on TV or doing different stuff, people were really unnerved by me physically standing. It would take them a while to adjust. And so I was like to get everyone used to the fact that I have a full body, and that I could be upright, because even the physical angle is so different. So I'm glad that we have come out from under the desk. There's so much world that we have to visit, and I wouldn't be able to do things like gives speeches in Springfield, Missouri for queer communities that are never seen.

The news cycle is heavy right now. How are you taking care of yourself and avoiding burnout as a creator?

I lean on the other people who are doing incredible news creation. So let's say I don't do breaking news, because Aaron Parnas does it every 15 seconds. There's a skill and a group of people that want that, but I don't feel like I have to compete with that. We know there's a 40 percent crossover between my audience and his, that if they got that story, I'm moving on.

Before Trump was president, I could report on things that were happening, even if they were difficult. For example, the fall of Afghanistan was incredibly difficult, but it was happening, and I could trust that what was being reported from the Pentagon was factual. We could watch it on television or on social media.

Now, I have to hear what the White House or the Pentagon has said, fact-check it against my sources, and then also convince the audience that I am right. For example, when Pete Hegseth said he was sending 700 Marines from Camp Pendleton into Los Angeles, my contact was like, "It's not Camp Pendleton; it's Twentynine Palms, and the civilians may not know, but there's a big difference between Camp Pendleton, which is basic."

We're talking 17, 18, 19-year-olds. And Twentynine Palms, are Marines, who are 22, 23, 24, so they're still young, but they're full Marines. So I was like, OK, I'm like, they're not from Camp Pendleton, they're from Twentynine Palms, so this is what they're trained for, crowd control and riots. And people were like, that's not what Hegseth said. I say I know, but I also know I'm right.

The intent of the Trump administration, oftentimes, is to sow chaos and division and get people all worked up about something so that they can continue to push through with things that aren't happening. So I tend to try to be like, OK, Donald Trump has signed an executive order saying that trans women have to go to male prisons. Well, that's already been challenged, and it's actually already been won in court, and it never happened. So let's be calm on that one.

Do you ever feel tension between you and the audience when they're coming in with a really intense energy of panic, and you have to de-escalate while acknowledging their concerns?

So I have definitely done this more. I think there's like, being a journalist, and then there's being a creator, and creators care for the audience, the emotions, and thoughts. And journalists are supposed not to do that, so it's very tricky to walk that line, so I will give a little bit of both. So something happens, I'll be like, this is actually fucked up. If you feel like it's fucked up, it's because it is. And here's what's likely to come next. And then I can tell the truth that way.

And I have to do that a lot more than I want to, but you do have to do it because this idea of objectivity or just telling the facts, well, they don't provide facts, so you actually have to fill it in with historical evidence. Sometimes I feel like I do more history than telling them what's happening now, so that we're all kind of caught up.

As a creator, what was your experience in gaining a following? Was it one video that really took off, or a slow and steady build?

I started as a culinary creator. So I used to make cheeseburgers, all different kinds of crazy cheeseburgers and stuff you could use from stuff in your pantry.

So I was like doing that, just to try and give myself something to do in the pandemic. And I got a culinary following first. So I was like, food famous, before I switched over to doing the news. I never looked at the follower count. I always looked for return customers. I think I was trained for that from a culinary standpoint. It's like when you look at how many covers you have that night at a restaurant. We got 700 tonight. This is what it means for my staff.

But I'd be like, "Oh, Lisa's gonna be here tonight. I fucking love her". So I treat content like that. I'm always looking for my regulars.

At what point did you decide to cover the news full-time?

When I got laid off from the James Beard Foundation. So I got furloughed first, and so I really thought this dream job that I had achieved and spent so much of my time working towards would come back. And there came a point when I realized it wasn't going to come back. And also, it wasn't the same anymore, either. I had seen too much of how devalued I was to them. And then I was doing consulting work for food. I was working on, like, how we were gonna get veterans meals delivered while they were unhoused during the pandemic.

It wasn't until I actually got asked to be a featured creator at VidCon. I certainly didn't know what a featured creator was, and I didn't have management or anything. I showed up here just to do a panel or something. There were like 70,000 people who came to that first VidCon I attended. And that's when I started to be, like, this is a job, job.

Daniel from Palette Management was at my first VidCon. They were brand new at that time — I don't even know who they had signed. And he was like, "Hi, we were hoping to talk to you."

I was like, Okay. And he's like, "Where's your manager? I was like, "What do you mean?" And he's like, "Are you here alone? Oh God, oh no, don't be alone."

For content creation tools, what are the essentials you're using?

Røde Microphones. And I don't have a partnership. I don't make any money off of it. But I spent so much money on so many different pieces of equipment. So I had all the different types of lights, from the ones that go on your phone to big pancake lights. Now I have a studio light. I have all this stuff. I have all these different things, and I had all these different types of microphones, and the only ones that ever really worked were the like, plug-in earphones

I'll buy a car, but I won't buy, like, a $149 microphone. And Daniel ended up buying them for me with my money. So I started using them, and there was something about the sound quality and the way that it felt, and then I felt like I owed it to the audience to give them that superior sound.

I've lost count of the number of times Google Chrome Sync failed on me. It's not a problem half the time, but when Google Chrome Sync isn't working, I always fall to the process of elimination. Here are some steps you can take.

If you're frustrated with the high cost of PDF editors and hesitant about uploading private files to unknown servers, you're not alone. I've been there, and honestly, it's frustrating as hell. That's exactly why I took control and started self-hosting Stirling PDF—an all-in-one PDF editor I run locally.

Toyota has been a hybrid leader for years, blending efficiency and reliability into some of the most popular cars on the road. From compact sedans to family SUVs, their electrified lineup continues to resonate with fuel-conscious buyers.

Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, will be making his big-screen debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, out in 2026.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and starring Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks the return of Peter Parker/Spider-Man following the game-changing ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That film saw Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell that made the whole world forget who Peter Parker is, essentially re-setting the MCU's Spider-Man franchise as we know it.

SEE ALSO: All the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, ranked worst to best

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't the only MCU project Bernthal's Punisher — who debuted in Netflix's Daredevil before leading Netflix's The Punisher — has been involved in lately. He also showed up in Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again and will be back for Season 2. Bernthal has also co-written the upcoming Punisher Special Presentation, working with co-writer and director Reinaldo Marcus Green.

The resolution of the Special Presentation and Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 could give viewers clues as to what to expect from the Punisher in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but for now, plot details for Spidey's next film are understandably under wraps. Punisher's involvement could suggest a grittier, more street-level approach to Peter's story, as opposed to the multiversal and cosmic threats he faced in films like Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Aside from Holland and Bernthal, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will also star Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, reprising their roles as MJ and Ned. Is there any chance of them remembering Peter, or even reconnecting with him anew? Also joining the cast is Stranger Things star Sadie Sink in an as-yet unknown role.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters July 31, 2026.

June has become a big month for BTS fans, as every member of the massively successful K-pop boyband has now completed their mandatory military service. South Korea requires all non-disabled male citizens between the ages of 18 to 35 to complete 18 to 21 months of military duty.

Rapper Suga was the last of the BTS members to do so. As of Saturday, he was officially discharged from his duties as a social service agent, an alternative form of military service.

SEE ALSO: Jin takes over hosting 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon'

"It's been about two years. How have you all been?" Suga wrote in a post on Weverse, the fandom-focused social media platform created by HYBE Corporation.

Suga's discharge follows that of members RM and V, who were discharged June 10, and Jimin and Jung Kook, who were discharged June 11.

Jin, BTS's oldest member, was the first to enlist in the army, beginning his mandatory service in December 2023. He was discharged in June 2024, and J-Hope was discharged in October 2024.

Suga's return to civilian life has officially set the stage for a BTS comeback, which The Korea Herald reported is scheduled for March 2026. So, what's another few months' wait after several years away?

For now, though, the BTS ARMY is having the time of their life celebrating BTS's return online.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Right now, the most affordable MacBook you can buy is a MacBook Air—and they are brilliant, but as Apple has shown with the iPhone SE, it can go lower without losing that Apple magic.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, June 21, 2025:

AcrossFeeling extremely happy

• The answer is Joyful.

Wake from sleep

• The answer is Arouse.

Brand of cinnamon-flavored chewing gum

• The answer is Big Red.

Talk and talk and talk

• The answer is Gab.

Bengal, colt or dolphin

• The answer is Animal.

TV show ending

• The answer is Finale.

Rook, to a chess newbie

• The answer is Castle.

DownQuick boxing punch

• The answer is Jab.

Beginnings

• The answer is Origins.

Where you might strike a pose?

• The answer is Yoga mat.

Nickname for a fuzzy cat

• The answer is Furball.

One of many for white vinegar

• The answer is Use.

Was winning

• The answer is Led.

The Bengals, Colts and Dolphins play in it: Abbr

• The answer is AFC.

___ DaCosta, director of 2023's "The Marvels"

• The answer is Nia.

Harper who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird"

• The answer is Lee.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

Three-row SUVs dominate the family vehicle market, but one modern minivan challenges the trend by offering more space, better comfort, and greater value. If you’re comparing options for hauling people and cargo, this minivan makes a strong case for skipping the SUV altogether.

This was a quieter week for tech news after all the excitement around WWDC, but there's still a lot to talk about. T-Mobile announced an overhaul for its prepaid phone plans, more changes are coming to Windows 11, and much more—here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Nothing can get your mood up like a good old sitcom, and with a Netflix subscription, laughs are on tap whenever you need a pick-me-up. The streaming platform boasts a large library of sitcom offerings, so you'll always be spoiled for choice.

You love your Mac, and you love your Android phone. But getting these two ecosystems to play nice together is often not easy. What if I told you there’s a free, open-source app that can sync notifications between your devices and so much more?

Game monetization is a dicey subject. Developers and publishers need to make money and recoup their investments, but how they go about it varies wildly. Some methods are fair and widely accepted. Others fall into a much grayer, more exploitative area.

Did you know that palm veins were unique enough to use as a security measure on a smart lock? I didn’t, but TCL did, and I’m happy they figured it out. The TCL D1 Pro smart lock’s headlining feature is using your palm to unlock it, which is fascinating—and I liked it a lot more than I expected to.

For the past 40 years, Henry and Margaret Tanner have been crafting leather shoes by hand from their small workshop in Boca Raton, Florida. "No shortcuts, no cheap materials, just honest, top notch craftsmanship," Henry says in a YouTube advertisement for his business Tanner Shoes.

What's even more remarkable?

Henry has been able to do all this despite his mangled, twisted hand. And poor Margaret only has three fingers, as you can see in this photo of the couple from their website.

An AI-generated image recently deleted from the Tanner Shoes website. Credit: Tanner Shoes

I discovered Tanner Shoes through a series of YouTube video ads. Having written about men's fashion for years, I was curious about these bespoke leather shoemakers. In a typical YouTube ad for Tanner Shoes, a video of an older man, presumably Henry, is imposed over footage of "handmade" leather shoes, as he wearily intones, "They don’t make them like they used to, but for 40 years we did...Customers say our shoes have a timeless look, and that they’re worth every penny. But now, you won’t have to spend much at all because we’re retiring. For the first and last time, every last pair is 80 percent off."

I suspect the Tanner Shoes "retirement" sale is every bit as real as the photos of Henry and Margaret Tanner. Outside of this advertisement, I have found no online presence for Henry and Margaret Tanner and no evidence of the Tanner Shoes business existing in Boca Raton. I reached out to Tanner Shoes to ask if its namesake owners exist, where the company is located, and if it's really closing soon, but I have not received a response.

Unsurprisingly, Reddit users have spotted nearly identical YouTube video ads for other phony mom-and-pop shops, showing that these misleading ads aren't a one-off. As one Reddit user said, "I've seen ads like this in German with an AI grandma supposedly closing her jewelry store and selling her 'hand-made' goods at a discount." After I asked YouTube about the Tanner Shoes ads, the company suspended the advertiser's account for violating YouTube policies.

A screenshot of a Tanner Shoes ad featuring a likely AI "actor." Credit: Tanner Shoes / YouTube

These ads are part of a growing trend of YouTube video advertisements featuring AI-generated content. AI video ads exist on Instagram and TikTok too, but as the original and most well-established video platform, I focused my investigation on YouTube, which is owned by Google.

While AI has legitimate uses in advertising, many of the AI video ads I found on YouTube are deceptive, designed to trick the viewer into buying leather shoes or diet pills. While reliable stats on AI scams are hard to find, the FBI warned in 2024 that cybercrime utilizing AI is on the rise. Overall, online scams and phishing have increased 94 percent since 2020, according to a Bolster.ai report.

AI tools can quickly generate lifelike videos, pictures, and audio. Using tools like this, scammers and hustlers can easily create AI "actors," for lack of a better word, to appear in their ads.

In another AI video ad Mashable reviewed, an AI actor pretends to be a financial analyst. I received this advertisement repeatedly over a series of weeks, as did many Reddit and LinkedIn users.

In the video, the nameless financial analyst promises, "I'm probably the only financial advisor who shares all his trades online," and that "I've won 18 of my last 20 trades." Just click the link to join a secret WhatsApp group. Other AI actors promise to help watchers discover an amazing weight loss secret ("I lost 20 pounds using just three ingredients I already had in the back of my fridge!"). And others are just straight-up celebrity deepfakes.

An AI-generated financial advisor that appeared in YouTube advertisements. Credit: YouTube / Mashable Photo Composite Celebrity deepfakes and deceptive AI video ads

I was surprised to find former Today host Hoda Kotb promoting sketchy weight loss tricks on YouTube, but there she was, casually speaking to the camera.

"Ladies, the new viral recipe for pink salt was featured on the Today show, but for those of you who missed the live show, I'm here to teach you how to do this new 30-second trick that I get so many requests for on social media. As a solo mom of two girls, I barely have time for myself, so I tried the pink salt trick to lose weight faster, only I had to stop, because it was melting too fast."

Sadly, pink salt won't magically make you skinny, no matter what fake Hoda Kotb says. (AI-generated material) Credit: YouTube

This fake Kotb promises that even though this weight loss secret sounds too good to be true, it's definitely legit. "This is the same recipe Japanese celebrities use to get thin. When I first learned about this trick, I didn't believe it either. Harvard and Johns Hopkins say it's 12 times more effective than Mounj (sic)...If you don't lose at least four chunks of fat, I'll personally buy you a case of Mounjaro pens."

Click the ad, and you'll be taken to yet another video featuring even more celebrity deepfakes and sketchy customer "testimonials." Spoiler alert: This video culminates not in the promised weight loss recipe, but in a promotion for Exi Shred diet pills. Representatives for Kotb didn't respond to a request for comment, but I found the original video used to create this deepfake. The real video was originally posted on April 28 on Instagram, and it was already being used in AI video ads by May 17.

Kotb is just another victim of AI deepfakes, which are sophisticated enough to slip past YouTube's ad review process.

Sometimes, these AI creations appear real at first, but pay attention, and you'll often find a clear tell. Because the Kotb deepfake used an altered version of a real video, the fake Kotb cycles through the same facial expressions and hand movements repeatedly. Another dead giveaway? These AI impersonators will often inexplicably mispronounce a common word.

The AI financial analyst promises to livestream trades on Twitch, only it mispronounces livestream as "give-stream," not "five-stream." And in AI videos about weight loss, AI actors will trip up over simple phrases like "I lost 35 lbs," awkwardly pronouncing "lbs" as "ell-bees." I've also seen phony Elon Musks pronounce "DOGE" like "doggy" in crypto scams.

However, there isn't always a tell.

Can you tell what's real? Are you sure? Can you tell what's real? Credit: Screenshot courtesy of YouTube

Once I started investigating AI video ads on YouTube, I began to scrutinize every single actor I saw. It's not always easy to tell the difference between a carefully airbrushed model and a glossy AI creation, or to separate bad acting from a digitally altered influencer video.

So, every time YouTube played a new ad, I questioned every little detail — the voice, the clothes, the facial tics, the glasses. What was real? What was fake?

Surely, I thought, that's not Fox News host Dr. Drew Pinsky hawking overpriced supplements, but another deepfake? And is that really Bryan Johnson, the "I want to live forever" viral star, selling "Longevity protein" and extra virgin olive oil? Actually, yes, it turns out they are. Don't forget, plenty of celebrities really do appear in commercials and YouTube ads.

Okay, but what about that shiny bald man with a super secret technique for lowering cholesterol that the pharmaceutical companies don't want you to know about? And is that girl-next-door type in the glasses really selling software to automate my P&L and balance sheets? I genuinely don't know what's real anymore.

Watch enough YouTube video ads, and the overly filtered models and influencers all start to look like artificial people.

Can you tell which of these videos are real? Credit: YouTube / TikTok / Mashable Photo Composite SEE ALSO: How to identify AI-generated videos

To make matters more complicated, most of the AI video ads I found on YouTube didn't feature characters and sets created from scratch.

Rather, the advertisers take real social media videos and change the audio and lip movements to make the subjects say whatever they want. Henry Ajder, an expert on AI deepfakes, told me that these types of AI videos are popular because they’re cheap and easy to make with widely available synthetic lip synchronization and voice cloning tools. These more subtle AI videos are virtually impossible to definitively identify as AI at a glance.

"With just 20 seconds of a person’s voice and a single photograph of them, it is now possible to create a video of them saying or doing anything," Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California Berkeley and an expert in artificial intelligence, said in an email to Mashable.

Ajder told me there are also multiple tools for “the creation of entirely AI-generated influencer style content.” And just this week, TikTok announced new AI-generated influencers that advertisers can use to create AI video ads.

TikTok now offers multiple "digital avatars" for creating influencer-style video ads. Credit: TikTok

YouTube is supposed to have solutions for deceptive ads. Google's generative AI policies and YouTube's rules against misrepresentation prohibit using AI for "misinformation, misrepresentation, or misleading activities," including for "Frauds, scams, or other deceptive actions." The policies also forbid "Impersonating an individual (living or dead) without explicit disclosure, in order to deceive."

So, what gives?

Consumers deserve clear disclosures for AI-generated content

For viewers who want to know the difference between reality and unreality, clear AI content labels in video advertisements could help.

When scrolling YouTube, you may have noticed that certain videos now carry a tag, which reads "Altered or synthetic content / Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated." Instead of placing a prominent tag over the video itself, YouTube typically puts this label in the video description.

You might assume that a video advertisement on YouTube generated by AI would be required to use this disclosure, but according to YouTube, that's not actually the case.

Using AI-generated material doesn’t violate YouTube ad policies (in fact, it's encouraged), nor is disclosure required in most cases. In fact, YouTube only requires AI disclosures for ads that use AI-generated content in election-related videos or political content.

The synthetic content label in the description of an AI short film on YouTube. Credit: YouTube

In response to Mashable’s questions about AI video ads, Michael Aciman, a Google Policy Communications Manager, provided this statement: “We have clear policies and transparency requirements for the use of AI-generated content in ads, including disclosure requirements for election ads and AI watermarks on ad content created with our own AI tools. We also aggressively enforce our policies to protect people from harmful ads — including scams — regardless of how the ad is created.”

There's another reason why AI video ads that violate YouTube's policies slip through the cracks — the sheer volume of videos and ads uploaded to YouTube each day. How big is the problem? A Google spokesperson told Mashable the company permanently suspended more than 700,000 scam advertiser accounts in 2024 alone. Not 700,000 scam videos, but 700,000 scam advertiser accounts. According to Google's 2024 Ads Safety Report, the company stopped 5.1 billion "bad ads" last year across its expansive ad network, including almost 147 million ads that violated the misrepresentation policy.

YouTube’s solution to deceptive AI content on YouTube? More AI, of course. While human reviewers are still used for some videos, YouTube has invested heavily in automated systems using LLM technology to review ad content. “To address the rise of public figure impersonation scams over the last year, we quickly assembled a dedicated team of over 100 experts to analyze these scams and develop effective countermeasures, such as updating our Misrepresentation policy to suspend the advertisers that promote these scams," a Google representative told Mashable.

After I asked the company about specific AI videos described in this article, YouTube suspended at least two advertiser accounts; users can also report deceptive ads for review.

However, while celebrity deepfakes are a clear violation of YouTube's ad policies (and federal law), the rules governing AI-generated actors and ads in general are far less clear.

AI video isn't going away

If YouTube fills up with AI-generated videos, you won't have to look far for an explanation. The call is very much coming from inside the house. At Google I/O 2025, Google introduced Veo 3, a breakthrough new model for creating AI video and dialogue. Veo 3 is an impressive leap forward in AI video creation, as I've reported previously for Mashable.

To be clear, Veo 3 was released too recently to be behind any of the deceptive videos described in this story. On top of that, Google includes a hidden watermark in all Veo 3 videos for identification (a visual watermark was recently introduced as well). However, with so many AI tools now available to the public, the volume of fake videos on the web is certain to grow.

One of the first Veo 3 viral videos I saw was a mock pharmaceutical ad. While the faux commercial was meant to be humorous, I wasn't laughing. What happens when a pharmaceutical company uses an AI actor to portray a pharmacist or doctor?

Deepfake expert Henry Ajder says AI content in ads is forcing us to confront the deception that already exists in advertising.

"One of the big things that it's done is it's held up a looking glass for society, as kind of how the sausage is already being made, which is like, 'Oh, I don't like this. AI is involved. This feels not very trustworthy. The feels deceptive.' And then, 'Oh, wait, actually, that person in the white lab coat was just some random person they hired from an agency in the first place, right?'"

In the United States, TV commercials and other advertisements have to abide by consumer protection laws and are subject to Federal Trade Commission regulations. In 2024, the FTC passed a rule banning the use of AI to impersonate government and business agencies, and Congress recently passed a law criminalizing deepfakes, the "Take It Down" Act. However, many AI-generated videos fall into a legal grey area with no explicit rules.

It's a tricky question: If an entire commercial is made with AI actors and no clear disclosure, is that advertisement definitionally deceptive? And is it any more deceptive than hiring actors to portray faux pharmacists, paying influencers to promote products, or using Photoshop to airbrush a model?

These are no longer hypothetical questions. YouTube already promotes using Google AI technology to create advertising materials, including video ads for YouTube, to "save time and resources." In a blog post, Google promotes how its "AI-powered advertising solutions can assist you with the creation and adaptation of videos for YouTube’s wide range of ad formats." And based on the success of Google Veo 3, it seems inevitable that platforms like YouTube will soon allow advertisers to generate full-length ads using AI. Indeed, TikTok recently announced exactly this.

"With just 20 seconds of a person’s voice and a single photograph of them, it is now possible to create a video of them saying or doing anything." - Hany Farid, a University of California Berkeley professor and expert in artificial intelligence

The FTC says that whether or not a company must disclose that it's using "AI actors" depends on the context, and that many FTC regulations are "technology neutral."

"Generally speaking, any disclosures that an advertiser would have to make about human actors (e.g., that they are only an actor and not a medical professional) would also be required for an AI-generated persona in an analogous situation," an FTC representative with the Bureau of Consumer Protection told Mashable by email.

The same is true for an AI creation providing a "testimonial" in an advertisement. "If the AI-generated individual is providing a testimonial (which would necessarily be fake) or claiming to have specific expertise (such as a medical degree or license or financial experience) that affects consumers’ perception of the speaker’s credibility, that may be deceptive," the representative said.

The FTC Act, a comprehensive statute that governs issues such as consumer reviews, prohibits the creation of fake testimonials. And in October 2024, the FTC regulation titled "Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials" specifically banned fake celebrity testimonials.

However, some experts on deepfakes and artificial intelligence believe new legislation is urgently needed to protect consumers.

"The current U.S. laws on the use of another person’s likeness are — at best — outdated and were not designed for the age of generative AI," Professor Farid said.

Again, the sheer volume of AI videos, and the ease of making them, will make enforcement of existing rules extremely difficult.

"I would go further and say that in addition to needing federal regulation around this issue, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and the others have to step up their enforcement to stop these types of fraudulent and misleading videos," Farid said.

And without clear, mandatory labels for AI content, deceptive AI video ads could soon become a fact of life.

Having covered virtual private networks (VPNs) for Mashable since 2019, I can tell you that "best VPN" and "paid VPN" are effectively synonyms. Getting a privacy-forward VPN with plenty of features and server locations inevitably means spending the equivalent of one fancy matcha latte per month.

So, while the word "free" is normally a red flag, there are two notable exceptions for users in search of the best free VPNs.

Among the reliable and trustworthy VPN services I've tested, both Proton VPN and TunnelBear offer free subscription tiers. They fit the bill for cash-strapped users with basic browsing needs. They only allow one connection at a time and come with lots of restrictions, so temper your expectations, but they're workable for certain use cases. More importantly, they're protected by the same privacy practices as their paid counterparts, including some vetted no-logs policies. Crucially, they're also subsidized by the paid plans: Proton VPN and TunnelBear don't make money off their free users.

SEE ALSO: The best VPNs for 2025: Tested for performance, trustworthiness, and more

Relatedly, I strongly recommend steering clear of any completely free VPNs that aren't funded by paid subscribers or subject to usage limits. At best, they're probably going to spam you with ads; at worst, some entirely free VPNs have been caught tracking, leaking, or selling user data and intentionally bundling their apps with malware. Not all of them are bad actors or evil scammers, but "exercise overcaution" is my general rule of thumb when it comes to choosing a VPN, since online privacy is the whole point of getting one in the first place. (See also: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.)

Below, I delve into the capabilities and shortcomings of the two best free VPNs I've tried.

Proton VPN: The best free VPN for daily use Credit: Screenshot via Proton VPN What it can do

This is the free VPN I turn on when I want some extra security humming in the background while I work from a coffee shop. Proton VPN's free tier doesn't have any data or speed limits, so you can feasibly use it 24/7 — within reason. Proton may enact speed caps "in cases of excessive consumption in order to ensure service quality for all [free] users," according to its privacy policy.

Free subscribers can utilize Proton VPN's kill switch as well as its custom Stealth protocol, which is designed to bypass VPN blocks. As such, it may also appeal to journalists and activists in places that aren't friendly to the technology. They should know that the company is publicly supportive of online freedom causes: Among other initiatives, Proton VPN has opened additional free servers for users in countries known for government censorship and misinformation campaigns ahead of their elections.

What it can't do

Free Proton VPN users can't use its live chat support and don't get access to advanced features like split tunneling, its multi-hop "Secure Core" servers, or its "VPN Accelerator" speed-boosting tool. Free users are also restricted to about 2,300 Proton VPN servers in five countries — Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and the United States — and they can't pick where they land. Let's hope the server you're given isn't too clogged or located in a country you don't want to appear in: There's a waiting period between server changes that increases every time you switch. It occasionally takes me a while to land on a relatively fast, uncrowded server. (For comparison's sake, Proton VPN Plus subscribers get city-level access to over 13,600 servers in 122 countries worldwide.)

SEE ALSO: After Pornhub left France, this VPN saw a 1,000% surge in signups in 30 minutes

Since your server options are so limited, Proton VPN Free isn't ideal for general location spoofing or unblocking popular streaming services (two common secondary use cases for VPNs), unless your needs involve one of those five countries. Even then, there's no guarantee you'll get on a server in your preferred locale immediately.

Read my full review of Proton VPN.

Opens in a new window Credit: Proton Proton VPN Free $0 with no data limit Learn More TunnelBear: The best free VPN for occasional location spoofing Credit: Screenshot via TunnelBear What it can do

TunnelBear Free users get country-level server selection on its full network, so this is the VPN I boot up when I need to do some quick, one-off location spoofing. (Most recently, I used it to check if sold-out vinyl variants were still available in an artist's UK store.) TunnelBear had locations in 47 countries at the time of writing; it's not very globally diverse, but it gives you way more options and flexibility compared to the competition.

Feature-wise, TunnelBear's free crew can enable its kill switch (called "VigilantBear") and its split tunneling tool ("SplitBear"), which lets you exempt different kinds of traffic depending on the platform. You can also customize the appearance of your TunnelBear app.

What it can't do

TunnelBear Free users are capped at 2GB of browsing data per month, which means you won't be able to have it on all the time. (I managed to hit that limit in a single afternoon when I left the VPN running while I worked.) Even if you could stay connected 24/7, you wouldn't be able to stream hours of shows and movies. While TunnelBear Free is great at spoofing my location, I've never gotten it to unblock geo-restricted content on international streaming services because they've detected my VPN usage. This has also been the case when I tested TunnelBear Unlimited, its paid tier, for what it's worth.

Along similar lines, TunnelBear Free users aren't missing out on a ton of features compared to their paying comrades because TunnelBear just isn't a very robust, feature-rich VPN service to begin with. There's no multi-hop, it doesn't offer on-demand customer support, and it works on fewer platforms than other premium VPNs.

Read my full review of TunnelBear.

Opens in a new window Credit: TunnelBear TunnelBear Free $0 for 2GB of data per month Learn More