this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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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.

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.

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[–] modernangel@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 hours ago

I remember a panic some years back about YT funnels of cartoon content aimed at kids, that would lead to weird and sometimes disturbing stuff like "elsa ariel and moana drown together" ... I guess the algo has evolved to target nonchildren now

Garbage site, even if the Alphabet CEO wasn't an oligarch fash toady. Happily running health scam woo ads and refuses to act on reporting of scam advertising.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

shit the internet has become a toilet and I have to go outside and look around and talk to people but everyone's on the internet now I'm fucked

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

welcome to your life

There's no turning back

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 24 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It’s become unbearable, as has 90% of the web.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

90% of the web is porn tho...

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 3 points 2 hours ago

AI generated porn

[–] rook@lemmy.zip 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] prex@aussie.zone 6 points 4 hours ago
[–] recursive_recursion@piefed.ca 28 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Once Peertube's able to provide the minimal feature parity, I'd bet that most would abandon YouTube similar to what happened with Reddit and Lemmy

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

i think that's cope unfortunately

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 minutes ago

It really is, YouTube to the best of my knowledge stands alone in the service they offer.

Anyone can, at no cost to them, create an account, edit and upload a video up to 12 hours long I believe, and in decent quality. They also have a revenue sharing system where a creator with enough of a viewership base can get a cut, often more than half, of the ad revenue from their videos.

I don't believe anyone else does that, outside of uploading SFW content to Pornhub or something.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 17 points 6 hours ago

Not at all. Scaling is an issue with P2P video, which is the basis of how Peertube works. Also, FFS, like 0.01% of Reddit is on Lemmy. They talk themselves out of Lemmy in real time in any thread where it comes up.

For real, sometimes it's OK to just serve a smaller community with better truth.

[–] ynthrepic@lemmy.world 36 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

I do not think anywhere near most Reddit users came to Lemmy. I wish it were true.

Do we know if Lemmy mods are doing quality content moderation? That and their locking out open source and third-parties is why I mostly avoid Reddit. But I'm not entirely gone.

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago

Anecdotally, my closest friends are all senior level tech workers who are fully aware of what reddit did and the current state of everything, but I'm the only person that's left for Lemmy. They are all still regulars on Reddit. In the same vein, I've written off doing business with many companies due to their shitty practice. Other than my sister also dropping Target, I'm the only person that I know that has stopped giving business to shit companies.

So yea, unfortunately the reality is that the vast vast majority of people just don't care enough change even the smallest of behaviours for ethical reasons. I mentioned something today at my family Christmas that I don't buy Reign energy drinks anymore because I stopped buying PepsiCo after they rolled back DEI. The response was, "get over yourself". That's probably the above average response for most people I know.

[–] morto@piefed.social 16 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

and according to fediverse observer, lemmy has been losing a lot of users...

on the other hand, according to statista, reddit has been gaining users and now has more than when the lemmy exodus happened

the truth is that what we did didn't affect them as much as we expected, and most people don't care as well :(

but well, let's keep the flame alive and not lose hope

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 12 points 5 hours ago

the truth is that what we did didn’t affect them as much as we expected, and most people don’t care as well :(

Most people don't really care about anything. They won't put up with a little inconvenience. Worse than toddlers.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, I wouldn't really want everyone on Reddit to come here. With the risk of sounding like some immigrant hating dickbag, they just bring their dumb takes and bot farms with them. What makes Lemmy good right now, is that it's so small and intimate.

[–] morto@piefed.social 3 points 3 hours ago

At least with lemmy we can make our server and defederate with the bigger ones if things get bad like that

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 hours ago

And they verified those users are not bots?

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 18 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

A telling thing is that apparently Youtube's algorithm knows that these videos are AI slop. I suspect this because at the outset I was aggressively disrecommending any of these that Youtube suggested to me, and basically nothing like them shows up in my feed anymore. Every once in a while one still slips through, usually some manner of synthetic music thing, and I hit the ol' three dots and choose "not interested" and then "don't recommend this channel" and I never see it again.

What's much more concerning is that the average user (i.e. non tech people, i.e. practically everybody) is being handed this shit by default and in my lifetime of experience of people already being widely unable to distinguish truth from blatant manipulative fantasy, the prevalence of false/misleading/nonsense/fabricated AI bullshit being constantly peddled inches from their eyeballs is absolutely eroding peoples' already limited ability to think.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Interesting, wonder if my watch history having some e.g. Penn & Teller: BS! is why they’ve never dared push me slop… OK, brainrot slop at least, maybe something's slipped through.

(Haven’t touched the “don’t recommend” stuff that I can recall over these years… er, decades perhaps, whew)

Obvy could be any one of a million reasons. Could’ve been A/B Test Group B while you were Group A!

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

If I had never used YT before, that shit would turn me off of it so hard.

[–] morto@piefed.social 1 points 5 hours ago

But who has never used youtube? Kids are already getting used to it in such a way that it's probably becoming hardwired into the brain...

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Right? It's gonna be like facebook where if you ever interacted with it the first time you'd ask yourself why people use it. This is good for us

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

i havent found you tube interesting in years. I also use 3rd party viewers if I have to watch something there so there is no algorithym to suggest anything.

Works better that way.

[–] Cabbage_Pout61@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Most people that I follow post videos there, can't help but use it unfortunately.

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You can use a third party tool to keep track of what you want to see, more or less anonymously subscribing.

[–] PoastRotato@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (4 children)

Do you have any recommendations?

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 hours ago
[–] xartle@reddthat.com 1 points 3 hours ago

Invidious had been good to me

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

I have a pretty good time with New Pipe but I've heard others haven't had the good experience I have.

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

Freetune works for me, on a roku I use playlet, on android there are a few others.

There was a good recommendation on here the other day, but I didn't write it down.

You also can create playlists in various media players like VLC.

I would highly encourage whoever you really like to head over to nebula. I know paying seems not great but they do get a portion of that money and there are no ads.

[–] mr_account@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

20% of videos shown aren't AI slop

[–] tgcoldrockn@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

"Let's get those numbers up!" - TechLord, Profiteering Destroyer of Culture