Newsroom
YouTube star and entrepreneur Jordi van den Bussche, better known online as Kwebbelkop, told an audience at the Digital Agenda Cyprus Summit that artificial intelligence saved his career.
Van den Bussche, who commands more than 20 million followers across social media, launched his YouTube channel in 2011. Over more than a decade, he built a global audience through gameplay videos known for fast pacing and humor. But as his online empire grew, he faced a dilemma common among digital creators: the demand to produce nonstop content.
“I couldn’t take a break,” he said. “If I stopped posting for even a few days, the algorithm punished me.”
To solve that problem, van den Bussche turned to AI-driven creativity. He first introduced a fictional, animated personality named Bloo, developed with a team of writers and actors. The character became a hit, drawing 2.7 million subscribers on its own channel.
Encouraged by that success, van den Bussche took the idea further, building an AI version of himself. The digital Kwebbelkop now appears in daily videos produced by a full studio team under his company, JVDB Studios, which focuses on artificial intelligence, gaming, and virtual entertainment.
Not everyone welcomed the change. Early viewers criticized the move, saying they missed the “real” Kwebbelkop. But over time, van den Bussche said, he realized the line between the human and the digital versions had blurred.
“Even when it’s really me on screen, people still argue about whether I’m real,” he said. “At this point, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the story we tell.”
