Good Advice Cupcake creator slams BuzzFeed’s Amazon MGM AI animation deal
Loryn Brantz says she’s “horrified and disgusted” after BuzzFeed signed Cupcake & Friends to the new GenAI Creators’ Fund. BuzzFeed already tried this with Chikn Nuggit, and lost.
Loryn Brantz, the creator of the popular webcomic and animated series The Good Advice Cupcake, has come out swinging against BuzzFeed and Amazon MGM Studios after learning her character is being used in a generative AI animation deal without her involvement.
In a public statement on X amplified by animation news account ToonHive, Brantz said she was “horrified and disgusted” by the situation and called for a boycott of BuzzFeed and AI-produced animation that uses creators’ work without permission.
The flashpoint is one of the three projects announced today as part of Amazon MGM and AWS‘s newly launched GenAI Creators’ Fund, an animated series from BuzzFeed Studios titled Cupcake & Friends.
Brantz was laid off from BuzzFeed two years ago
This is where the story gets uglier. Brantz no longer works at BuzzFeed.
In January 2024, BuzzFeed laid off a significant portion of its Animation Lab team, including Brantz, in a round of cost-cutting that led to the cancellations of Weird Helga and The Good Advice Cupcake. Brantz has since moved on to become a consulting creative director for the Ms. Rachel children’s education program.
The Good Advice Cupcake, known to fans as Cuppy, was at the time of its cancellation one of BuzzFeed’s most successful animated properties, with over 3 million followers on Instagram. The series paired the cupcake’s cute, Pusheen-like aesthetic with mouthy life advice, built around the theme of “Believe in Yourself, B*tch.” Brantz is a two-time Emmy Award winner.
The fact that BuzzFeed laid Brantz off, cancelled her show, and is now using the IP she created for an AI-driven Amazon MGM deal without her involvement is what has driven the most pointed criticism in the animation community.
BuzzFeed already tried this with Chikn Nuggit and lost
This is not BuzzFeed’s first AI controversy involving a popular animated property, and the previous one ended badly for the company.
On March 5, 2026, Kyra Kupetsky, the creator and voice actor of Chikn Nuggit, publicly resigned from BuzzFeed in protest. Chikn Nuggit, which has amassed roughly 9 million followers across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, follows the adventures of a long-eared golden retriever and his fast food-themed friends.
Kupetsky posted the announcement on both the official Chikn Nuggit X and Bluesky accounts.
“Hi! It’s Kyra. Creator and voice actor of Chikn Nuggit. I have some incredibly unfortunate news I’m very saddened to deliver. I will be leaving the show and no longer voicing Chikn,” she wrote. “BuzzFeed is going to be requiring Chikn to be fed into AI for a project and I am fully against this. It’s being done despite our stance against it.”
In a follow-up, Kupetsky clarified that no AI had been used in any existing episodes and that the entire BuzzFeed animation team was against the move. “The AI is only being used in a project that none of us can talk about because of NDA but none of us are involved. I’m leaving before this project starts. Everyone on BuzzFeed animation team is against this.”
Within days, a Change.org petition was circulating, fans across X, Reddit, Bluesky, and YouTube were rallying behind Kupetsky, and BuzzFeed leadership had reportedly received what one Reddit commenter bluntly called “bullying.”
On March 12, 2026, after a week of escalating public pressure, BuzzFeed backed down. Kupetsky returned to the show.
“WE DID IT!!!!” she wrote in a follow-up post. “BuzzFeed has confirmed Chikn Nuggit will NOT be used for the AI-supported project! Thank you so much, BuzzFeed, for hearing us out and wanting the best for Chikn.”
The episode established two important precedents. First, BuzzFeed had at least one undisclosed AI animation project in the pipeline that it was attempting to feed multiple IP through. Second, sustained public pressure could force the company to reverse course.
The Cuppy and Chikn Nuggit connection that ties this all together
The story gets more entangled when you understand the personnel overlap.
Kyra Kupetsky was not just the creator and voice of Chikn Nuggit. She was also the lead animator and voice of Cuppy in The Good Advice Cupcake, working under Brantz before being given the creative reins for her own series at BuzzFeed Animation Lab. Two of BuzzFeed’s most popular animated properties were creatively driven by the same small core team, and now both of those properties have become the center of public AI disputes.
Brantz publicly thanked Kupetsky and the team in past book credits, and the two creators have long been associated with each other’s work. The pattern of BuzzFeed pursuing AI integration of properties created by the same circle of animators, while those animators publicly oppose AI, has not gone unnoticed.
Amazon MGM’s bigger AI push
The Brantz statement landed on the same day that Amazon MGM Studios and AWS officially launched the GenAI Creators’ Fund at the AI on the Lot conference at Culver Studios in Los Angeles.
The fund will provide proof-of-concept grants and access to Amazon’s Project Nara AI production platform, which integrates third-party generative AI models including Kling AI alongside professional tools like Maya, Blender, Nuke, Unreal Engine, and Adobe Suite. Three series were greenlit for Prime Video alongside Cupcake & Friends: Punky Duck from Jorge R. Gutierrez of The Book of Life and Maya and the Three, and Love, Diana Music Hunters from Albie Hecht, the former Nickelodeon president behind SpongeBob SquarePants.
Gutierrez’s comments at the event, including describing AI-assisted animation as “having sex and then they hand you the baby,” have drawn separate criticism from the animation community. The combined announcement of multiple AI-driven projects, plus the BuzzFeed Studios involvement, has put a spotlight on how quickly major studios are moving into AI-assisted animation, even as individual creators continue to voice strong objections when their own work is involved without clear permission.
The Animation Guild is paying attention
The Animation Guild (TAG), IATSE Local 839, has been vocal on these issues for some time. The guild’s AI Task Force, formed in April 2023, published the comprehensive Critical Crossroads report in September 2024. The numbers from internal surveys were stark. 67% of respondents did not feel favorably about generative AI being used in the workplace. 100% supported adding provisions to the union contract barring AI from displacing members’ work. 87% wanted to prohibit employers from using unionized work to train AI systems.
Internationally, a historic coalition of animation unions and federations staged a coordinated anti-Generative AI protest at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 12, 2025, with the rallying line “GenAI seeks not to support artists, but to destroy them.”
Brantz’s reaction fits squarely into that wider wave of pushback from animators and digital creators. Many argue that while AI tools can be useful in certain parts of the pipeline, using existing characters and IP without the original creator’s active involvement crosses a line.
The core issue
At the heart of these disputes is a fundamental disagreement about ownership and consent in the age of generative AI.
Companies like BuzzFeed and Amazon see AI as a powerful new tool that can help scale content creation, recoup investment on properties they own outright, and open up new creative possibilities. Many creators see their characters and styles being fed into systems they never agreed to, often with little transparency or compensation.
The legal reality is uncomfortable. BuzzFeed owns the IP rights to The Good Advice Cupcake. Brantz created the character while employed by BuzzFeed, which is the standard work-for-hire arrangement in commercial animation. She does not have legal veto power over what BuzzFeed does with the IP, even though she is the recognized creator.
That is precisely why public pressure has become the only tool creators have. The Chikn Nuggit case proved it can work. Whether the same playbook will succeed against a much bigger BuzzFeed plus Amazon MGM deal involving Project Nara remains to be seen.
For now, Brantz has drawn a clear line. She does not want her character used in AI-generated projects without her involvement, and she is willing to say so publicly, even when it involves a major platform like BuzzFeed and a flagship new initiative from Amazon MGM.
The message from a growing number of creators is becoming harder to ignore. Moving forward with AI on someone else’s intellectual property without consent is not acceptable, and the public is increasingly willing to hold companies accountable when they try.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming and tech, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
ToonHive on X, reporting Loryn Brantz’s “horrified and disgusted” statement and call for a BuzzFeed and AI animation boycott
Wikipedia and Loryn Brantz‘s personal site, biographical details including her January 2024 BuzzFeed layoff and current role as consulting creative director for Ms. Rachel
Daily Dot, Yahoo Entertainment, Comics Beat, Bubbleblabber, iox Blog, and Change.org, comprehensive coverage of the March 2026 Chikn Nuggit controversy, Kyra Kupetsky’s resignation, and BuzzFeed’s eventual reversal
Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Animation Magazine, Animation World Network, The Wrap, and TV Tech, reporting on the Amazon MGM and AWS GenAI Creators’ Fund launch at AI on the Lot on May 27, 2026
The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) “Critical Crossroads” AI Task Force report (September 2024)
Deadline, coverage of the historic anti-Generative AI protest at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2025