Despite repeatedly declaring tighter controls, YouTube seems still powerless against the wave of garbage created by artificial intelligence.
According to a report by Kapwing, a software company specializing in online creation (California, USA), more than 20% of videos proposed by YouTube for new accounts are junk content produced by AI.
The study analyzes data from the world's most popular 15,000 YouTube channels to determine the spread of poor quality videos and their impact on views, subscribers and revenue.
The results showed that, among the 15,000 channels surveyed, 278 channels only posted "slop" videos, which are humorous, repetitive, uncreative and mass-created AI videos.
Notably, these channels still attract a total of 63 billion views and 221 million subscribers. The most viewed "AI slop" channel is Bandar Apna Dost, based in India, with more than 2.4 billion views.
The content of this channel is mainly videos created by AI, depicting a human-shaped monkey and Hulk-like characters fighting the devil.
Although according to current policy, AI-generated videos do not qualify for direct monetization, Kapwing estimates that channels of this type can still bring in about 117 million USD per year. Bandar Apna Dost alone is said to generate about 4.25 million USD in annual revenue through indirect forms.
More worryingly, when researchers created a completely new YouTube account, in the first 500 videos proposed, up to 104 videos were products of AI.
About one-third of the remaining videos are also classified as "silly content", showing that new users are almost immersed in low-quality videos.
Kapwing believes that this is a sign of a rapidly developing semi-structured industry, taking advantage of free AI generating tools to produce mass content to attract interaction. Along with that is the emergence of scam groups, selling courses and teaching secrets to make AI videos to spread.
Faced with the wave of user complaints on many platforms such as Instagram, X or YouTube, technology companies have sought to limit poor quality AI content by tightening policies and increasing removals. Recently, YouTube is said to have blocked two major channels specializing in distributing fake movie trailers created by AI.
However, the paradox lies in the fact that technology giants still consider AI the future of social networks. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once affirmed that AI will help add a huge content store to the proposed system. YouTube has also integrated Veo 3, Google's AI video creation tool, directly into Shorts.
Commenting on the report, YouTube said that AI is just a tool and can create both good and bad content. The platform affirms that it still prioritizes connecting users with high-quality content and will delete videos that violate community rules. However, reality shows that the "AI slop" control problem is still very difficult.
