--- title: YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans... description: Interior design YouTuber Cliff Tan, who has 2.4 million subscribers, apologized after backlash over a paid sponsorship for ByteDance's AI tool Dreamina, which... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans after promoting an AI design tool | daily.dev og:description: Interior design YouTuber Cliff Tan, who has 2.4 million subscribers, apologized after backlash over a paid sponsorship for ByteDance's AI tool Dreamina, which... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9yuezb6mb.png og:image:alt: YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans after promoting an AI design tool og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans after promoting an AI design tool **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 19 upvotes · 5 comments ## Summary Interior design YouTuber Cliff Tan, who has 2.4 million subscribers, apologized after backlash over a paid sponsorship for ByteDance's AI tool Dreamina, which animates hand-drawn sketches into floor plans. He is the second major creator in a week to walk back an AI association, following Hank Green's apology over using ChatGPT for research. Commenters accused Tan of selling out despite his own on-camera caveats about AI making people 'forget to use your brain.' The pattern suggests audiences are punishing the mere association with AI tools, not just AI-generated content itself, creating risk for brands using influencer marketing to promote AI products. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jliter85** · 6 upvotes > I think this shows how divided people still are when it comes to AI. Using AI as a tool to build on something you already created is very different from letting it do everything for you. I don’t think creators should be afraid to experiment with new tools just because some people don’t like the technology. **@fabooy961** · 1 upvotes > if you give a shit about any influencer using ai for xyz you should consider using nutella as lube... > >  ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI video startup boasts it ‘ended’ jobs, gets backlash](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-video-startup-boasts-it-ended-jobs-gets-backlash-lzcgztb2i) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meet the developers rejecting AI](https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls) · LeadDev · 273 upvotes · 75 comments - [OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge community](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-ceo-apologizes-to-tumbler-ridge-community-xddwjz4zy) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#influencer-marketing](https://daily.dev/tags/influencer-marketing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans after promoting an AI design tool","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb"},"datePublished":"2026-08-12T19:44:39.172Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:01:06.973Z","description":"Interior design YouTuber Cliff Tan, who has 2.4 million subscribers, apologized after backlash over a paid sponsorship for ByteDance's AI tool Dreamina, which...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f74c3b55dab4644a6392149044964d32?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f74c3b55dab4644a6392149044964d32?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":5,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":19},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}],"keywords":"genai,influencer-marketing","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"YouTube star Cliff Tan apologises to 2.4 million fans after promoting an AI design tool"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/youtube-star-cliff-tan-apologises-to-2-4-million-fans-after-promoting-an-ai-design-tool-9yuezb6mb","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I think this shows how divided people still are when it comes to AI. Using AI as a tool to build on something you already created is very different from letting it do everything for you. I don’t think creators should be afraid to experiment with new tools just because some people don’t like the technology.","datePublished":"2026-08-16T17:22:04.401Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/9yuezb6mb#c-1Mju3DNxX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"John Liter","url":"https://daily.dev/jliter85","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DQ2HUrO4--/f_auto/v1785100315/avatars/avatar_yHf9cPdgTQEtokv6d8qhM?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"if you give a shit about any influencer using ai for xyz you should consider using nutella as lube…","datePublished":"2026-08-18T06:37:23.633Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/9yuezb6mb#c-U2i9L4APz","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Le Fä De Le Lö","url":"https://daily.dev/fabooy961","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1677218265/avatars/avatar_H6lLM2y9S4Yf8VCWicpd8.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```