I Unfollowed Half the AI Creators I Used to Trust. Here’s Why.

Why tool loyalty is costing you and who’s profiting from it

I pay for Claude, Gemini, Canva, and Higgsfield out of my own pocket and nobody is paying me to talk about any of them. I use them because they work and I share them on this blog because I think they’ll help you too.

How I Learned to Check

Over the past six months I have unfollowed a lot of creators in the AI and tech space because I realized they weren’t being transparent about getting paid.

There are two versions of this. The first is companies straight up paying creators thousands of dollars to produce content that looks unsponsored. No disclosure anywhere. The creator gets paid, the audience has no idea, and the whole thing is framed as an honest review.

The second is more subtle. A creator makes a “best AI tools” video, tells you one tool is their favorite, and never mentions that they have an affiliate link for it. You check their page later and they’re running a full promotion for the same tool. That’s a transparency problem. I’m happy to pay for a tool someone recommends if they actually use it and genuinely believe in it. But I need to know about the money. If there’s a financial relationship and the creator doesn’t disclose it, I can’t evaluate the recommendation. And neither can anyone else watching.

I’ve become a LOT more discerning about who I trust in the online tech space because of both issues.

And when I see a creator shouting from the rooftops about an AI tool and there’s no disclosure anywhere... immediately suspect.

People with integrity will tell you upfront they are getting paid. People who are silent about something they shouldn’t be usually have something to hide.

The Scope of This Problem

If you haven’t been in the world of affiliate or network marketing you might not understand why it’s important to disclose. Here’s what’s happening in this area and why it is important for you to understand.

The FTC requires clear disclosure of any material (including but not limited to financial) relationship between a creator and a brand. YouTube requires affiliate links to be labeled. Instagram and TikTok have branded content tools that are supposed to be activated on paid posts. The rules are not ambiguous.

But the reality is that affiliate and network marketers have historically been bad at disclosing and it’s just getting worse. At least six companies have recently faced class-action lawsuits over undisclosed influencer promotions. One creator openly described pitching companies on hiding the paid relationship by using just a handshake emoji instead of actual disclosure. That’s the level of integrity we’re dealing with in this space.

The average commission on AI tool affiliate programs is about 20%, and some of them track clicks for up to 60 days. Some programs pay 30-50% recurring, meaning the creator earns a percentage of a subscription every single month. The financial incentive is for the customer to STAY, and that changes what “favorite” means when there’s no disclosure attached.

Fines for non-disclosure can exceed $50,000 per violation. But enforcement is notoriously slow, and as you can imagine it’s pretty hard to enforce when every 4th person on the interwebs is hawking a pill, potion, lotion, or service. The money is good, creators and influencers usually didn’t fully understand the regulations and requirements in the first place, and nobody is being caught so they carry on with bad business practices while the consumer is being deceived.

The Disclosure Check

The creators worth listening to will do one of two things: clearly state that they receive commission when recommending a product, or clearly state that they don’t take paid promotions.

The ones who say nothing? Red flag and a sign to look closer.

Once I started looking for disclosure in AI recommendation videos and “best tools” roundups, I noticed how rare it actually is. A 2025 study from the Influencer Marketing Hub found that 72% of Gen Z audiences actually prefer clearly labeled sponsored content over undisclosed promotions. And the thing is they don’t care that the content is sponsored, they will buy either way. But they are the generation who was raised online and with them, transparency builds trust.

Here’s one you might not know about. Look for the emoji trick. If the only “disclosure” is a handshake emoji or a vague “collab” hashtag next to the brand name, that creator is for sure trying to technically comply while making sure nobody actually notices. The FTC has already CLEARLY stated that doesn’t count. The people engaging in these practices are either being shady or being coached by someone teaching them to be shady and either way it’s a problem.

Tool Loyalty on Top of All This

Tool loyalty in AI is already a bad idea because of how fast this world is moving right now. The “best” AI model changes every few months. And even THAT is changing. When I did the initial draft of this article a week ago, Claude Opus 4.6 was the top-rated model in the LLM arena. Six months ago it didn’t exist, and within the last week 4.7 released and bested it and ChatGPT is about to release GPT 5.5 which may upset the apple cart entirely. And Anthropic is currently coding all of its releases with the mysterious Mythos model that everyone says is going to surpass everything we have seen to date.

The changes impact people. Anyone who builds their entire workflow around one model, trains their team on it, develops custom prompts for it, will wake up one morning and have to start over. I know, because it has happened to me. I used to be a ChatGPT stan. I built custom chatbots, and did all my work inside there. And one day it just stopped performing well. It regressed and my work was progressively getting worse by the day. That’s the concrete cost of marrying one tool. But it will keep happening because that’s how this industry works. The models improve too fast for any single version to stay on top for long.

You have to stay fluid in this ever-changing landscape and I recommend having a backup for every tool you use as well as a concrete understanding of the differences between it and your favorite tool and a plan for quickly moving any workflow you have set up if something changes overnight.

Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute research confirms what I’ve seen in practice: different models are genuinely better at different things. Claude is strongest for writing and when you need it to process a lot of information and give you clean, organized output. Gemini is best at real-time research, working with images, and pulling current information. The study found that ChatGPT tends to be the most natural for back-and-forth conversation and creative brainstorming. I’d agree on the brainstorming, but personally I hate having conversations with Chat. No single model does everything well, and when you limit yourself to one, you’re leaving a lot of capability on the table.

Undisclosed affiliate recommendations are how people end up loyal to the wrong tool in the first place.

I use multiple AI tools because different tools do different things well. Claude is where I do my deep writing and systems work. Gemini handles deep research, image generation, and fact checking Claude. Canva does what Canva does. Higgsfield handles video in a way nothing else I’ve found can match. I didn’t pick any of them because a creator told me to. I tried them, compared them, and made my own decisions based on how they performed in my actual workflow. And I’ve dropped tools when they stopped being the best option, even when I was comfortable with them.

Filtering the Noise

If you’re a business owner trying to make money online and figure out which content creation tools to trust, the noise is a real problem. The AI space right now is LOUD. Everybody has a hot take and everybody has a “best tools” list.

I’ve been deep in AI for three years and I still have to work to filter through the rubbish. And I STILL get fooled sometimes. Someone frames something as an honest review and I find the affiliate link later. It’s frustrating, and every time I get caught out there it makes me more careful about who I listen to.

Find a small number of people who are transparent about their financial relationships, who actually use the tools they recommend (not just review them for content), and who have a track record of changing their recommendations when better tools come along. If someone has been recommending the same tool for two years in an industry that changes every two months, you have to at least ask yourself why. The people who are genuinely trying to help will tell you when something better comes along, even if it means losing an affiliate commission on the old recommendation.

Where I Stand

I love the affiliate income model. When done correctly (ethically and transparently) it creates recurring revenue that can support the other work you do in your business. I earn affiliate income and I will never apologize for earning money through affiliate relationships.

But I will never affiliate for something I don’t use or hide a financial relationship from my audience. I affiliate for Captivation Genius and Riverside. I disclose it every time. And most of the tools I talk about on this blog, I pay for out of my own pocket because I genuinely love them and want you to know about them.

I don’t get paid by Claude, Gemini, Canva, or Higgsfield. I’m not opposed to being paid by them (hint hint Anthropic... LOL) but currently I’m not. When I say these tools are good, there’s no commission attached. Just three years of daily use and my honest assessment.

I don’t sit around worrying about what I’m missing by being transparent. I don’t want to build a business that’s a house of cards. And I’d rather have a smaller audience that trusts me than a bigger one that found out I was selling to them without telling them.

If you are reading this article and you find out you’ve already adopted a tool based on someone’s undisclosed recommendation, just cancel it. Find one that actually works. It’s not rocket science. Try things, compare, and make a decision based on how the tool performs in YOUR actual workflow.

And this article has zero undisclosed affiliate relationships in it. Just so you know.

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If you want to learn how to build real discernment around AI tools and understand how they fit together in a content creation and online business workflow without someone selling you their affiliate stack, the AI Revolution Secrets training is where I’d start. It’s free, it’s practical, and it’s focused on helping you think clearly about AI, not just buy things.

Register for the free training here