AI slop
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Fascinating.
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 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.
I really don't watch many YT videos, the exceptions being cooking or crocheting stuff. Something came up in the sidebar about an animal story and I clicked on it. It became clear pretty quickly that it was AI, which I confirmed by looking at the description, which said it was AI -generated.
This is crazy.
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In some ways, Gigi is like any other young social media influencer.
With perfect hair and makeup, she logs on and talks to her fans. She shares clips: eating, doing skin care, putting on lipstick. She even has a cute baby who appears in some videos.
But after a few seconds, something may seem a little off.
She can munch on pizza made out of molten lava, or apply snowflakes and cotton candy as lip gloss. Her hands sometimes pass through what she's holding.
That's because Gigi isn't real. She's the AI creation of University of Illinois student Simone Mckenzie - who needed to make some money over the summer.
Ms Mckenzie, 21, is part of a fast-growing cohort of digital creators who churn out a stream of videos by entering simple prompts into AI chatbots, like Google Veo 3. Experts say this genre, dubbed "AI slop" by some critics and begrudging viewers, is taking over social media feeds.
And its creators are finding considerable success.
"One video made me $1,600 [£1,185] in just four days," Ms Mckenzie said. "I was like, okay, let me keep doing this."
