More than 20% of YouTube's feed is now "AI slop," report finds

[midian182]

The takeaway: Not only are more than half the articles on the web created by AI, but over 21% of YouTube videos being show to new users are "AI Slop." That's according to a new report, which also found that the US is in third place when it comes to consumption of these low-quality generated videos.

Video editing firm Kapwing highlights AI slop's definition as careless, low-quality content generated by computer applications and used to farm views and subscriptions or sway political opinion.

But for all the pushback against AI slop and brainrot – low-quality, trivial online content – their proliferation on YouTube is hard to avoid.

To get an idea of how much of YouTube consists of AI-generated videos, Kapwing simulated the experience of an untainted YouTube Shorts algorithm by establishing a new YouTube account. It then noted the occurrence of AI slop among the first 500 videos in the feed. In total, 104 (21%) of the first 500 videos were AI-generated, while 165 (33%) were classed as brainrot.

Kapwing also looked at global consumption of AI slop. Based on views alone, South Korea leads the way – its 11 trending AI channels have a combined figure of over 8.45 billion views. Pakistan is second with 5.34 billion views, while the US is third with 3.39 billion.

It's estimated that the Three Minutes Wisdom channel, which accounts for almost a quarter of the country's view count, earns around $4 million annually from ad income.

The US is also third when it comes to the most subscribers to these channels. The 14.4 million subscribers in the country put it just beneath second-place Egypt (17.9 million) and leader Spain (20.22 million).

The world's most-subscribed AI slop channel is a US-based Spanish-language channel called Cuentos Facinantes [sic], which has 5.95 million subs. Its Dragon Ball-themed videos have racked up 1.28 billion views.

India's Bandar Apna Dost has the most views of any AI channel: 2.07 billion. It's also the highest earner, with an estimated $4.25 million per year.

It's not just YouTube, of course. Social media, online articles, images – huge swathes of what was once almost entirely the work of humans are now generated by AI. It's no wonder that "slop" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year.

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More than 20% of YouTube's feed is now "AI slop," report finds

 

[FaTaL]

You can thank sora.

 

[AlexIL]

Noticed a lot of it and stopped visiting YouTube. Good job Google

 

[winjer]

Hardware got much more expensive, for crap like this....
It's a lose-lose situation.

 

[polord]

More datacenters for this b*llsh*t

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

That's why the Gods of technology invented a thing known as "RSS feeds" back in the pre-slop era.

Just subscribe to your favorite channels, avoid everything else. Congrats: you gamed the slop system

 

[kaosken]

My kingdom for a AI Blocker. Coming soon, I'm sure...

 

[Che Cazzo]

In other words, it will be indistinguishable from the other 99.9999% of Youtube's junky content

What an amazing achievement for AI!!

 

[MuttMutt]

Ai slop content should be removed and accounts that make it should be banned.

It's hard enough to get a channel going but when you are competing against a computer program that generates crap is even harder.

 

[scoffer]

Never fear......The USA will soon overtake the other contenders for the "Sheeple Award". No doubt starting in the general area of California.

 

[James321]

AI will be the end of all.

We need this to accelerate.

 

[Galloper22]

Given the fact that your behavior feeds the algorithm and you are in charge of what you are gonna watch, isn't it everyone's responsibility? Why complain about AI slop then?

 

[MasterAce]

Given the fact that your behavior feeds the algorithm and you are in charge of what you are gonna watch, isn't it everyone's responsibility? Why complain about AI slop then?

It’s doomscrolling. It’s like brainwashing, feeding people random junk that keeps them engaged for all the wrong reasons.

 

[MasterAce]

In my end of the world the national news agency, tax money funded, has AI written news. Then there is a statement how it was ”fact checked” by a human.

AI is so incredibly fluent at getting facts mixed up that how can this fact checker actually understand the subject, and the content of the news, to reliably check it? And is it actually faster? Or is the person under pressure to be faster, which leads to mistakes?

 

[VitalyT]

It will break a threshold soon when most people realise that everything on YouTube is fabricated, and the platform will crumble.

 

[magoid]

That's why the Gods of technology invented a thing known as "RSS feeds" back in the pre-slop era.

Just subscribe to your favorite channels, avoid everything else. Congrats: you gamed the slop system

Funny you mentioned it: I cannot access Techspot RSS feed. It stopped working a while ago for me. Other websites continue to work OK.

 

[magoid]

I started to block channels if I see a AI image on the thumbnail. I like history channels and it is almost guaranteed that if the thumbnail is AI, the content will be at trash level.

 

[IksPiks]

Funny you mentioned it: I cannot access Techspot RSS feed. It stopped working a while ago for me. Other websites continue to work OK.

It's your RSS reader. Techspot RSS feed works just fine.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Funny you mentioned it: I cannot access Techspot RSS feed. It stopped working a while ago for me. Other websites continue to work OK.

I'm on Inoreader's paid plan, the TechSpot feed works with no issues.

 

[JSabin]

What does this statement mean? "Kapwing simulated the experience of an untainted YouTube Shorts algorithm by establishing a new YouTube account. It then noted the occurrence of AI slop among the first 500 videos in the feed."

How does one create a YouTube account that allows others to post videos to it? (Please, no hate mail.)

 

[barca1au]

Try this one, created to breed hatred:

One of those guaranteed to disrespect families and suspicion. 8 year old child abandoned in Dubai, given to estranged supposedly American father by mother's family.

 

[Underdog]

Even before AI was a thing, Youtube was going down the pan. Some "how to" vids are great, but most are poorly made useless copies made by people.

 

[jeffbert]

Sad that the video about giant spiders with 5 foot leg spans was AI crap!

 

[NyaAgain]

Here in the comments we can reveal that this article was written by AI.