Over 21 percent videos shown to new YouTube users are AI slop, study finds

More than 21 percent of videos shown to new YouTube users are AI slop, or low-quality view-farming content generated by artificial intelligence, a study has found.

Video-editing firm Kapwing researched the top 100 trending YouTube channels in every country, or 15,000 in total, and found that 278 of them contained only AI slop, the Guardian reported, citing the study. 

Despite the small amount in number, these AI slop channels altogether garnered more than 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers, generating about US$117 million (HK$913 million) in revenue every year, the report said. 

The researchers also revealed that brainrot videos, or nonsensical and low-quality videos, accounted for around 33 percent of the first 500 YouTube shorts on a new user’s feed.