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ZDNET Highlights
- A new study shows that YouTube lacks AI by more than 20%.
- Brainrot, or poor quality content, is 33%.
- There is no incentive for creators to attempt to reduce AI slope.
If you feel like you’re watching a lot of AI-generated slop on YouTube, you’re right.
according to A study of the video-editing service KapwingOver 20% of Shorts content on YouTube is AI slop or “careless, low-quality content” created with AI and designed only to farm views and subscriptions. The study revealed that 33% were creating what is called brainrot, or “compulsive, redundant, low-quality video content” (which is often generated with AI).
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To conduct the study, Kapwing took the top 100 trending YouTube channels in every country and noted which ones were AI-generated. It then used a social media analytics tool to track those channels’ overall views, number of subscribers, and estimated annual revenue to determine their popularity.
It also created a new YouTube account to see how much AI slop was introduced in the first 500 shorts.
In theory, an algorithm-free account should be a good overview of YouTube content at large, as there are no personalized recommendations yet.
How YouTube’s algorithm adopts AI
In a completely new account scenario, it took 16 shorts for YouTube to introduce one short with an AI slope. However, from there, it was a fairly steady stream, as 104 of the first 500 videos, or 21%, were low-quality, AI-generated. Another 165 of the first 500 videos, or 33%, fall into the BrainRot category.
Globally, Spain was the largest consumer of AI Slop, with over 20 million people subscribing to trending AI channels. Egypt stood second and America stood third. Kapwing found the most popular AI channel was Bandar Apna Dost, an Indian channel with 2.07 billion views. This generates an estimated income of $4.25 million per year.
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Of course, YouTube only serves what it finds popular or engaging, so people must be watching this style of AI video. When you consider that for creators, AI generators mean very low-cost or even no-cost content, it’s not hard to see why there’s been a sudden increase. And if YouTube reinforces this by promoting videos and rewarding creators, the growth will continue.
Many platforms like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) and Pinterest are taking steps to label content, and some AI, like Gemini, can now detect whether a video was created by an AI or not. However, as long as users keep consuming it, there is no incentive for creators or platforms to try to mitigate the AI slope.
