Study finds more than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI sloppy’ Artificial intelligence (AI)

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

Video-editing company Kapwing surveyed the world’s 15,000 most popular YouTube channels – the top 100 in every country – and found that only 278 of them had AI sloppiness.

According to estimates, these AI slop channels have collectively generated more than 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers, generating approximately $117 million (£90 million) in revenue each year.

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

The findings are a snapshot of a rapidly growing industry that is saturating the major social media platforms – from X to Meta to YouTube – and defining a new era of content: decontextualized, addictive, and international.

A Guardian analysis this year found that around 10% of YouTube’s fastest-growing channels, which rack up millions of views, were AI slackers. Despite the efforts of the forum To curb “inauthentic content”.

Channels found by Kapwing are globally distributed and viewed globally. They have millions of subscribers: In Spain, 20 million people, or almost half the country’s population, follow trending AI channels. AI channels have 18 million followers in Egypt, 14.5 million in the US and 13.5 million in Brazil.

monkey is your friendThe most watched channel in the study, is based in India and now has 2.4 billion views. It features the adventures of an anthropomorphic rhesus monkey and a muscular character along the lines of the Incredible Hulk who fights monsters And Travel on a helicopter made of tomatoesKapwing estimated that the channel could earn up to $4,25 million, Its owner did not respond to the Guardian’s questions,

Rohini Samson, a researcher on technology and digital rights, said that the popularity of Bandar Apna Dost probably stems from its absurdity, its hyper-masculine image and the fact that it lacks a plot, making it accessible to new audiences.

Pouty FrenchieBased in Singapore, it has 2 billion views and appears to target children. It chronicles the adventures of a French bulldog – driving through a candy forest, eating crystal sushi – many of them set to a soundtrack of children’s laughter. Kapwing estimates it makes about $4m per year. Interesting storiesBased in the US, it also appears to target children with cartoon stories, and has 6.65 million subscribers – making it the most subscribed channel in the study.

During this time, AI WorldSet in Pakistan, it features AI-generated shorts of the devastating floods in Pakistan with titles like Poor People, Poor Families and Flooded Kitchen. Many of these videos are set to a soundtrack called Relaxing Rain, Thunder and Lightning Ambience for Sleep. The channel has 1.3 billion views.

It’s hard to overstate how important these channels are compared to the vast sea of ​​content that already exists on YouTube. The platform does not release information on how many views it receives annually, or how many of these are from AI content.

But behind these otherworldly scenes of sweet forests and disasters lies a semi-structured, growing industry in which people are trying to find new ways to monetize the world’s most powerful platforms using AI tools.

“There are a huge number of people on Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord and message boards exchanging tips and ideas (and) selling courses on how to build slops that will be lucrative enough to make money,” he said. read maxA journalist who has written extensively on AI sloppiness.

“They have what they call niches. One that I’ve seen recently is AI videos of people’s pressure cookers exploding on the stove.”

While AI Slops creators are everywhere, Reed said many come from English-speaking countries with relatively strong Internet connectivity, where the average salary is less than what they earn on YouTube.

“It’s mostly in middle-income countries like Ukraine, there are a lot of people in India, Kenya, Nigeria, there are a lot of people in Brazil too. You can also look at Vietnam. Places with relative freedom online to access social media sites,” he said.

Becoming an AI slope creator isn’t always easy. For one thing, creator programs on YouTube and Meta aren’t always transparent about who and how much they pay for content, Reed said. For another, the AI ​​slop ecosystem is full of scammers: people selling tips and courses on how to create viral content – ​​who often make more money than the AI ​​slop producers themselves.

But, at least for some people, it is a living. And while new, attention-grabbing ideas – like exploding pressure cookers – emerge constantly, when it comes to AI sloppiness, human creativity matters much less than the algorithms that distribute content on Meta and YouTube.

“These websites, by their very nature, are giant A/B testing machines,” Reed said. “Anything you can think of, you can already find on Facebook. So the question is how do you find the things that are performing well, and then how do you scale them? How do you make 10 of those?”

A YouTube spokesperson said: “Generative AI is a tool, and like any tool it can be used to create both high- and low-quality content. We’re focused on connecting our users to high-quality content, no matter how it’s created. All content uploaded to YouTube must follow our Community Guidelines, and if we find that content violates a policy, we remove it.”