Jonathan Laramy left his customer service job in June 2025 to pursue a career using artificial intelligence. Months later, he created Chloe, a fictional woman who films herself travelling through history.
The AI-generated character has since attracted millions of views across Instagram and YouTube.
But the success of Chloe VS History has come with considerable production costs. Laramy says individual long-form videos can take weeks to complete and cost between £300 and £800. Despite attracting huge audiences, the project initially struggled to generate meaningful income.
His experience offers a closer look at the work and financial challenges behind viral AI-generated content.
From Customer Service To AI Filmmaking
Laramy's career began far from filmmaking. According to his Majestic Studios website, he worked in insurance and marketing before spending eight years in customer service.
Behind one of YouTube’s fastest growing AI channels is a self-taught creator using generative AI to bring history to life https://t.co/QmW3Kae86a
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) November 3, 2026
His interest in historical reconstruction began during childhood visits to museums, castles and historic houses. One experience that stayed with him was walking through a reconstructed Victorian street at York Castle Museum.
The full-scale recreation left him fascinated by the idea of experiencing history rather than simply reading about it. Years later, advances in AI-generated imagery offered a way to turn that interest into visual storytelling.
He initially experimented with Greek mythology, ancient civilisations and reconstructions of historical cities. Those projects eventually led to Majestic Studios, the company he founded, and the development of Chloe VS History.
Laramy had no formal filmmaking training when he began producing AI videos. Instead, he built his skills through experimentation and gradually developed a production process.
How an AI Time-Traveller Attracted Millions of Views
Chloe VS History follows a computer-generated woman who explores the past as though she were a modern travel influencer.
Her fictional adventures include visiting Tudor London, exploring the Titanic's first-class accommodation and witnessing life in ancient Pompeii. She speaks directly to the camera, reacts to her surroundings and guides viewers through digitally reconstructed historical settings.
The approach attracted attention quickly. In an Insider video interview published in June 2026, Laramy said Chloe's first Instagram post received four million views. He recalled that subsequent posts also attracted millions of views.
The channel's popularity extended beyond Instagram. By May 2026, The Guardian reported that Chloe VS History had more than 610,000 Instagram followers and 15 million YouTube views.
Laramy believes the character's familiar presentation helps make historical subjects accessible. Rather than relying entirely on traditional documentary narration, he places viewers alongside someone who appears to be experiencing the events herself.
Millions of Views Did Not Immediately Bring Income
The channel's popularity did not initially translate into substantial earnings.
In a Business Insider account published on 18 June 2026, Laramy explained that Instagram generated little income despite the attention his videos received. TikTok was also an unsuccessful revenue source because he had not been accepted into its Creator Rewards programme.
His financial prospects improved when he began concentrating on longer YouTube videos. He said those episodes attracted sustained viewing and helped draw more attention to the channel's shorter content.
Laramy claimed that the channel eventually earned him considerably more than his former customer service wage. However, he did not disclose a verified earnings figure, and the report did not establish his net profit.
Production expenses remain substantial. He estimated that a single long-form video typically costs between £300 and £800, depending on its complexity and the number of revisions required.
Why AI Videos Can Take Weeks To Produce
Although Chloe's adventures appear effortless, Laramy says producing them requires more than entering a prompt into an AI generator.
His workflow involves developing ideas, writing scripts, generating images, converting them into video, maintaining the character's voice and editing the finished material.
He told Business Insider that he uses several AI tools, including Claude for developing ideas and script structures and Seedance 2.0 for video generation.
Maintaining consistency presents another challenge. Chloe must look and sound recognisable across scenes, even when appearing in different centuries. Generated footage also needs repeated adjustments to achieve the intended result.
Every revision can add to the cost. Laramy said some short segments require numerous attempts before they are suitable for the finished video.
Historical Accuracy Remains a Challenge
The use of AI also creates questions about historical reliability.
Laramy has acknowledged that his videos sometimes contain mistakes. AI-generated scenes can include objects that do not belong in the period being depicted, such as modern street lamps or sunglasses appearing in ancient Rome.
During his Insider interview, he said he was working to improve accuracy by drawing more heavily on historical references and publicly available source material.
He also welcomed corrections from historians who identified errors in his videos.
The format has received interest from academics. Oxford University historian Adam Smith told The Guardian that AI-generated historical videos could help engage audiences with the past.
However, he distinguished their entertainment and educational potential from the role of museums and academic research.
For Laramy, the challenge is to balance entertainment with historical credibility while managing the costs of production.
Chloe can visit centuries of history in a matter of minutes. Behind those fictional journeys, however, is a creator who spends weeks developing stories, correcting mistakes and refining scenes before viewers see the finished result.
