More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds

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 . Super Cat League features human-like cats in bizarre scenes.Photograph: @SuperCatLeague/YouTube The 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 of them contain only AI slop . Together, these AI slop channels have amassed more than 63bn views and 221 million subscribers, generating about $117m (£90m) in revenue each year, according to estimates. 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 “brainrot”, a category that includes 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 - from X to Meta to YouTube - and defining a new era of content: decontextualised, addictive and international. A Guardian analysis this year found that nearly 10% of YouTube’s fastest-growing channels were AI slop, racking up millions of views despite the platform’s efforts to curb “inauthentic content”. The channels found by Kapwing are globally distributed and globally watched. They have millions of subscribers: in Spain, 20 million people, or nearly half the country’s population, follow the trending AI channels. AI channels have 18 million followers in Egypt, 14.5 million in the US, and 13.5 million in Brazil. Bandar Apna Dost , the most-viewed channel in the study, is based in India and now has 2.4bn views. It features the adventures of an anthropomorphic rhesus monkey and a muscular character modelled off the Incredible Hulk who fights demons and travels on a helicopter made of tomatoes . Kapwing estimated that the channel could make as much as $4.25m. Its owner did not respond to a query from the Guardian. Rohini Lakshané, a researcher on technology and digital rights, said Bandar Apna Dost’s popularity most likely stems from its absurdity, its hyper-masculine tropes and the fact that it lacks a plot, which makes it accessible to new viewers. Pouty Frenchie , based in Singapore, has 2bn views and appears to target children. It chronicles the adventures of a French bulldog - driving to a candy forest, eating crystal sushi - many of them set to a soundtrack of children’s laughter. Kapwing estimates it makes nearly $4m a year. Cuentos Facinantes , based in the US, also appears to target children with cartoon storylines, and has 6.65 million subscribers - making it the most-subscribed channel in the study. Meanwhile, The AI World , based in Pakistan, contains AI-generated shorts of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, with titles like Poor People, Poor Family, and Flood Kitchen. Many of these videos are set to a soundtrack called Relaxing Rain, Thunder & Lightning Ambience for Sleep. The channel itself has 1.3bn views. It’s hard to say exactly how...

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