More than 20% of YouTube videos shown to new users is ‘AI slop’

Research of the YouTube algorithm indicates over 20% of videos shown to new users are of low quality AI-generated content.

More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop” — low-quality AI-generated content designed to farm views, research has found.

The video-editing company Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular YouTube channels — the top 100 in every country — and found that 278 of them contain only AI slop.

Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221m subscribers, generating about $117m (€99m) in revenue each year, according to estimates.

The researchers also made a new YouTube account and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to its feed were AI slop. One-third of the 500 videos were “brainrot”, a category that includes AI slop and other low-quality content made to monetise attention.

The findings are a snapshot of a rapidly expanding industry that is saturating big social media platforms — from X to Meta to YouTube — and defining a new era of content: decontextualised, addictive and international.

The channels found by Kapwing are globally distributed and globally watched. They have millions of subscribers: in Spain, 20m people, or nearly half the country’s population, follow the trending AI channels. 

AI channels have 18m followers in Egypt, 14.5 m in the US, and 13.5m in Brazil.

Bandar Apna Dost, the most-viewed channel in the study, is based in India and now has 2.4bn views. It features the adventures of an anthropomorphic rhesus monkey and a muscular character modelled off the Incredible Hulk who fights demons and travels on a helicopter made of tomatoes. Kapwing estimated that the channel could make as much as $4.25m.(€3.61m)

Rohini Lakshané, a researcher on technology and digital rights, said Bandar Apna Dost’s popularity most likely stems from its absurdity, its hyper-masculine tropes and the fact that it lacks a plot, which makes it accessible to new viewers.

Pouty Frenchie, based in Singapore, has 2bn views and appears to target children. It chronicles the adventures of a French bulldog — driving to a candy forest, eating crystal sushi —many of them set to a soundtrack of children’s laughter. Kapwing estimates it makes $4m a year (€3.4m). Cuentos Facinantes, based in the US, also appears to target children with cartoon storylines. With 6.65m subscribers it is the most-subscribed channel in the study.

Meanwhile, The AI World, based in Pakistan, contains AI-generated shorts of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, with titles like Poor People, Poor Family, and Flood Kitchen. Many of these videos are set to a soundtrack called Relaxing Rain, Thunder & Lightning Ambience for Sleep. The channel itself has 1.3bn views.

It’s not always easy to be an AI slop creator. For one thing, creator programmes on YouTube and Meta aren’t always transparent about who they pay for content, and how much, said Read. 

For another, the AI slop ecosystem is full of scammers: people selling tips and courses on how to make viral content — who often make more money than the AI slop producers themselves.

— The Guardian