Can AI Provide Passive Income? Week 19 Insights
This week marked the 19th week of my journey exploring whether AI can truly support the creation of a passive income stream.
It’s been another interesting week, raising more questions than answers, on the back of experiments, mixed results, and a lot of reflection about the creative process.
Pushing Forward With New Videos
Over the past seven days, I released two more videos on my new faceless channel, bringing my total to four. The latest two used Google Veo 3 for the first time. Veo gave me a different creative experience compared to Runway: faster to create, easier to generate, and arguably closer to the type of AI-generated content that currently performs better on YouTube.
On the flip side, I ran into a familiar challenge: cost and inconsistency. Even with my free trial of Google AI Pro, I burned through a lot of credits generating clips that simply weren’t usable. Out of 22 clips created for one video, only 10 made it into the final cut, and every generation, even flawed ones, cost credits.
Runway feels more creatively satisfying to me, but Veo feels more commercial and in line with viewer expectations. This tension of creative fulfilment vs. monetisable output has been a constant theme for consideration this week.
Results So Far
After releasing four videos, I’ve amassed just 27 views, no subscribers, and very few impressions from YouTube itself. That last point is especially telling: if YouTube isn’t pushing the videos to the right audience, it’s almost impossible to gain momentum.
It’s made me stop and reflect: have I chosen the right creative direction? Or is the issue more generally around the quality of the content I am creating?
If you listen to most successful YouTubers, a lot mention the art of improving their quality of content as they become more experienced. Over these 19 weeks, I have seen my skills improving, and no doubt the quality of what I produce over time will increase. The question I am asking, though, is whether the downsides of creating with AI currently outweigh the positives.
Flow, Frustration, and AI
This week I also started reading a book about the concept of flow; that state of deep, focused engagement in a task. It made me realise how little of that feeling this project has actually given me lately.
Part of the appeal of AI for me has always been its potential to enhance creativity. But when you spend hours writing prompts, waiting for systems to churn out inconsistent results, and fighting against randomness, it’s hard to find flow. Sometimes the process feels more like a battle than a collaboration.
On top of this challenge around flow, I have no remaining credits for Runway and Veo until the end of the month. That means that to create additional content on this path would mean further investment.
Right now, this feels like the right time to reassess before pushing ahead.
What’s Next?
I’ve decided that Week 20 will be a pause to review everything I’ve learned so far, weigh up the creative and financial costs, and consider what adjustments might help me move forward.
It’s been a fascinating 19 weeks, but sometimes, progress means taking a step back before you leap forward.
If you’ve felt a similar tension between creativity and commercial viability, or have found ways to find your own flow with AI, I’d love to hear from you.