“Make it stop”: A new study says 20% of YouTube videos are low-quality AI slop
A new study by Kapwing has found that 20% of YouTube videos are all AI slop — and it looks like children are the most impacted.
AI slop might seem like an urban myth, but it's more pervasive than we might realize. That's the main conclusion one can draw from a new study by Kapwing.
The video-editing company interviewed the top 100 YouTube channels in each country, which worked out to 15,000 channels overall. Kapwing found that a total of 278 of these channels were actually AI slop, which, in conjunction with one another, amassed over 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers.
These channels, in turn, were estimated to have generated $117 million in revenue each year.
Adding to this research, Kapwing also made a fresh YouTube account and found that 104 of the first 500 videos recommended to it were AI-generated. This amounts to around 21%.
The company also found that "brainrot" accounted for 33% of the first 500 YouTube Shorts, specifically in a person's feed.
Which countries had the most AI slop?
Spain, South Korea, and the US were found to be the three leading countries when it comes to AI slop content. Spain's most popular AI slop channels have 20.22 million subscribers combined, which is the most of any country. In South Korea, the popular AI slop channels have garnered 8.45 billion views.
The AI slop channel with the most views is India-based channel Bandar Apna Dost, with 2.07 billion views. It has an estimated annual earnings of $4,251,500.
As for the US, the channel Cuentos Facinantes has more subscribers than any other channel around the world, with a total of 5.95 million.
How has social media reacted?
Social media users are disappointed by these figures, but not surprised.
"YOU don't notice AI on YouTube because you watch REAL creators," one X user wrote, "But have a look at a child's device once in a while... check their Shorts feed. It's bad. It's embarrassingly bad."
"The real challenge is how these algorithms prioritize high volume over actual human creativity and depth," another added.
While a third simply said, "Make it stop."
In a separate viral X video, a fourth user shared an example of AI slop. The clip showed a baby humanoid monkey in clothes secretly damaging a van, causing a crash and nearby cliffs to collapse. Alongside this clip was a post reading:
"I don't think people realize how bad the AI slop problem is on YouTube. The video below is the fifth most viewed video on YouTube in the last week. It has more than a hundred million views in six days. Childlike AI slop shorts dominate a lot of people's algorithms now."
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