The story was reported by Indicator, a publication investigating digital deceptions, and was published in collaboration with The Guardian.
Dozens of YouTube channels have mixed AI-generated images and videos with false claims about Sean “Diddy” Combs's blockbuster trial, drawing tens of millions of views on YouTube and cashing out the misinformation.
According to data collected from YouTube, 26 channels have generated 705 million views from around 900 AI-injected Diddy videos over the past 12 months.
The channel appears to follow a similar equation. Usually, each video has a title and AI-generated thumbnail that links celebrities to Dedi with false claims, such as a celebrity who just testified at trial forced them to commit sexual acts, or a celebrity shared a shocking revelation about Diddi. Thumbnails often depict famous people in stands juxtaposed with Diddy's image. Some portray Diddy and celebrities in compromise situations. The majority of thumbnails use quotes designed to shock people, such as “f*cked me me me me me of me,” “ddy f*cked bieber life,” and “she sold him to Diddy.”
Some of the channels that all-in with Diddy's “Slop,” a term used to refer to low-quality media generated by artificial intelligence, have a history of making false claims about celebrities and using AI-generated thumbnails. However, most of the 26 channels appear to be either reused newly created channels or older channels. At least 20 channels were eligible to earn revenue from advertising.
False and sensational Diddy AI Slop is an easy way to make money on YouTube, where you can run dozens of YouTube channels with AI-generated content and sell courses on how to make money on the platform. He said he personally didn't cash in Didi Trend.
“If you say, 'Hey, how can I make $50,000 as quickly as possible?” Number one is like doing a fucking drug. [dealing]but the second is probably to start a Diddy channel,” Aarts (25) said.
Fake celebrities involved
The indicator reviewed hundreds of thumbnails and titles with false claims about Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Justin Bieber, Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne “Rock” Johnson, 50 Cent, Joe Logan and more. Oddly, one channel, Fame Fuel, has posted 20 consecutive videos with thumbnails and titles generated by AI making false claims about US Attorney General, Pam Bondi and Diddy.
One of the most successful channels is Peeper. It has been viewed over 74 million times since it was created in 2010, but it only focuses on Diddy for at least eight months. Peeper has many of the most viral Diddy videos of top misinformers, including the video “Justin Bieber reveals Will Smith, Diddy and Clive Davis grooming him.” It has received 2.3 million views. Peeper is currently being made into a demo.
After posting health and life advice in Vietnamese, a channel called Secret Story has been switched to Diddy content. A hero story pivoted by Didi after first uploading a video about Ibrahim Traore, the military ruler of Burkina Faso. A Brazilian channel that generated millions of views from embroidery videos was switched to Diddy two weeks ago. Also, a channel called Celebrity Buzz produced over 1m of views from 11 Diddy videos within three weeks. It was created in early 2018, but appears to have deleted previously uploaded videos. The Secret Story and the Hero Story was ended by YouTube after enquiries from the indicator. Celebrity topics have been renamed demos.
Pivoted on Diddy
In another example, about three weeks ago, the Channel PAK GoV update began uploading a video about Diddy using thumbnails generated by AI with fake quotes attributed to celebrities such as Ausher and Jay-Z. One video is titled “Jay-Z breaks his silence in Diddy's controversy,” and Jay-Z thumbnails crying, lifting the CD over the quote “I Will Be Dod.”
There are 113,000 views for nearly 30 minutes of video and AI-generated narration using clips from TV news and other sources. No new information was included from Jay-Z, and the rapper never gave any quotes attributed to him.
Pak Gov Update previously posted a short amateur video with ClickBait titles on Pakistan's public pensions. Its biggest hit was a video called Big Information! Elderly Pension System||Fedalal Cabnet Big Development, which has received 18,000 relatively modest views. (They were typos.)
Cash incorrect information
Aarts said the Diddy Slop strategy is advantageous but dangerous. “Most of these channels will never survive,” he said. It cites the possibility that it could be promoneized due to violations of YouTube policy and legal action from Diddy and other celebrities featured in thumbnails and videos.
Similar to PAK Gov Update, most of the videos uploaded by the channel use more AI-generated narration than actual clips from news reports and other sources. It also uses AI images and uses less frequent composite videos. The actual use of video on a channel often appears to test fair use boundaries.
AI Slop is one type of content you can find about Diddy Trials on YouTube. But it seems to be a growing and lucrative niche. Similar Diddy AI content has also gained engagement on Tiktok.
“We're a fan of the world,” YouTube spokesperson Jack Maron said in an email: Maron said the company has removed 16 channels containing fame fuel. YouTube appears to have demoed several channels, including the Pak Gov Update.
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Faceless YouTube meet Diddy
Diddy Craze is the result of two intertwined trends in YouTube Hustling: automation and faceless channels.
YouTube Automation rests on the idea that everyone can build a successful YouTube business with the right niche and low-cost video creation process. Find topics people want to watch videos, brainstorm ideas, or hire international editors to pump content at a near-automated pace.
Thanks to AI, it's easier than ever to pursue your faceless automation dream. Aarts said anyone can complete the process of writing a script in ChatGPT or another large language model, generating images and thumbnails in MidJourney or similar models, using Google Veo 3 for the video, and creating AI VoiceOver with tools like ElevenLabs. He said he would then hire freelancers in the Philippines or elsewhere to edit the video.
“AI has opened up more for budget people to take part in YouTube automation,” Aarts said, saying it can pay less than $10 per video. He said he would make more than $130,000 from more than 45 channels.
Muhammad Salman Abazai, a Pakistani company that provides video editing and YouTube channel management services, said Diddy Video has become a “proper niche” on YouTube. Abazai showed off some Diddy videos that his team created and uploaded them to a high-end/wealth channel run for his clients.
“It was a success for us, because we got a lot of support from it, so we got subscribers from now on,” he said.
International Didi Slop
Pivoting to Diddy doesn't work in English alone. A Spanish channel called NV Historia was launched in January and had sporadically successful with fully AI-generated videos about celebrities. Its first hit was a video with the title translated into “Teacher laughs at black girls because his father said it was Chuck Norris until the teacher stepped into the classroom.” I've only seen 140,000 times.
NV Historia sent out the Chuck Norris Slop until it began to overtake the scenery about a month ago. At that time, the channel uploaded its first Diddy video. The title translates as “A minute ago: No one expected Dwayne Johnson to say this in court about Diddy”… The thumbnail uses AI-generated images of Rock and Diddy in court, and images of former wrestlers being forced to eat what appears to be their brains. The thumbnail features a quote saying, “He gave me it.”
Johnson has not testified and is not related to any of Diddy's alleged misconduct. The video has been viewed over 200,000 times. NV Historia posted a video that accidentally linked Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities to Diddy the following day, earning 45,000 views. After that, I went all into Diddy content. YouTube has since demoed NV Historia.
The French channel Starbuzzfr will be released in May and appears to only upload Diddy content. It uses AI-generated thumbnails and narration to spin the false narrative, including Brad Pitt's testimony to Diddy and say he was sexually abused by the mogul. Starbuzzfr particularly likes to use sexualized images generated by Diddy and celebrity AIs like Pitt. At the time of this writing, the channel is still monetized.
Aarts said the general attitude of the YouTube Facebook/Automation community is that anyone who can find a way to make money deserves respect.
“I'm congratulations to those who can pull that apart,” he said.
