Mastodawn

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 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers,
-- generating about $117m (£90m) 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.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/27/more-than-20-of-videos-shown-to-new-youtube-users-are-ai-slop-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds

Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media – and generating about $117m a year, data shows

The Guardian

@cdarwin
At what point does the parasite kill the host? ( #enshittification )

teledyn 𓂀 Dec 27

@knutson_brain @cdarwin

The target is "just alive enough"

Crystal_Fish_Caves Dec 27

@cdarwin yeah but are actual PEOPLE watching? or is AI slop being watched, you know, Robot Porn??

HawtP0tat0 Dec 27

I can confirm real people watch it. I have banned so many of these channels from my grandfathers YouTube subscriptions

maaneeack Dec 28

@HawtP0tat0 check out the blocktube extension and the ublock ai blocklist

Misuse Case Dec 28

@maaneeack @HawtP0tat0 Is there a way to put the uBlock AI blocklist on a phone? Or can it only be done on a laptop/desktop browser?

MarjorieR Dec 28

@MisuseCase @maaneeack @HawtP0tat0 You can certainly export your UBlockOrigin settings, including any optonal blocklist/filters and settings you have added, from your computer and then import them into UBblockOrigin on Android Firefox. Saves a bit of work setting up manually.

Misuse Case Dec 28

@marjolica @maaneeack @HawtP0tat0 Okay. The mobile device in this situation is an iPhone so I don’t know if I can get it to work.

MarjorieR Dec 28

@MisuseCase @maaneeack @HawtP0tat0 yes I think you are right.
There is a Webkit (not Gecko) based Firefox for iOS but last time I checked - the rest of my family use the walled garden Apple ecosystem - it couldn't install extensions, though basic adblocking was still a bit better than Safari.

@cdarwin I watch a lot of Youtube and disable recommendations, sticking to subscriptions. I'm generally very happy with the service using that setup, but I pulled it up without logging in one day and my god, the default experience is brainrot city. I have no doubt that plenty of people use it like this every day, including a lot of kids. Horrifying.

lupus_blackfur Dec 28

@cdarwin
@tchambers

**Gomer Pyle voice**

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!"

🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤡🤡🫏🫏🖕🖕💩💩

dexternemrod Dec 28

@cdarwin
If you add this annoying autotranslate/auto-cc "feature" it nearly 100% AI generated content.

My new routine is to check #peertube first via #sepiaserach before falling back to youtube.

@cdarwin Whenever I hear those familiar uncanny ai voiced narrators I immediately right click, and select "don't recommend videos from this channel"

Misuse Case Dec 28

@cdarwin I wonder what the overlap is between AI slop, toxic manosphere content, and straight-up scams that are shown to new/freshly created accounts on YouTube.

This is kind of a joke but not really.

Neil Moffatt Dec 28

@cdarwin The world rapidly being swamped and poisoned by AI in equal measure. Foundational to healthy human societies and interactions is the desire to connect meaningfully and to trust others. Both are atrophying chillingly fast.

@cdarwin From the article --

> A YouTube spokesperson said: “Generative AI is a tool, and like any tool it can be used to make both high- and low-quality content.

Serious question: is there any "high-quality" AI-generated content worth viewing, anywhere?

From my understanding of how the "A.I." algorithms work, they should only be capable of generating bland averages of whatever dataset they were trained on.