Going down the tubes: algorithm force-feeds YouTube users 'AI slop'

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.

- Aisha Down

The US 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 contain only AI slop.

Together, these channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221 million subscribers, generating about $117m (£87m) annually.

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 classed as “brain-rot” - AI slop and other low-quality content made to monetise attention.

The findings are a snapshot of a rapidly expanding industry that is saturating big social media platforms.

A Guardian analysis this year found that nearly 10% of YouTube’s fastest-growing channels were Al slop, despite the platform’s efforts to curb “inauthentic content”.