New study finds that more than 20% of videos YouTube's algorithm shows new users are “AI slop,” which refers to low-quality content generated by AI.
More than 20% of the videos YouTube's algorithm shows new users are “AI slop,” which refers to low-quality content generated by AI, a new study finds. The study was conducted by video editing company Kapwing and looked at 15,000 of the world's most popular YouTube channels (top 100 in each country) and found that 278 of them contained only AI slop.
Videos are meant to increase views and have little meaning. According to Kapwing, these AI slop channels have attracted more than 63 billion views and a whopping 221 million subscribers. According to estimates, these videos manage to generate around $117 million (£90 million) in revenue each year.
To further their study, the researchers also created new YouTube accounts and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to their feed were AI slops. They noted that a third of the 500 videos were “brain rot.” This category includes AI slop and other low-quality content created to monetize attention.
Overview of a rapidly growing industry
This research provides insight into a rapidly expanding industry that is saturated major social media platforms, from X to Meta to YouTube, defining a new era of decontextualized, addictive, and international content. According to a report by the Guardian, nearly 10% of YouTube's fastest-growing channels were powered by AI, racking up millions of views despite the platform's efforts to curb “inauthentic content.”
Meanwhile, the channels discovered by Kapwing are distributed and viewed around the world. These channels have millions of subscribers in Spain, and 20 million people, almost half of Spain's population, follow the trending AI channels. The AI channel has 18 million followers in Egypt, 14.5 million in the US, and 13.5 million in Brazil.
It's still hard to say exactly how important these channels are compared to the vast ocean of content on the platform. Additionally, YouTube does not publish information about how many views its entities receive each year, and how many of those views are from AI content.
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