Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media – and generating about $117m a year, data shows

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.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I report each one. And then I tell YouTube I never want to see anything from that channel again. I even pay for premium because I don’t want ads and I want to support some content creators (not shorts, no AI, etc). But this AI shit is really making me wonder what I’m even paying for?

  • Paragone@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Why would concentration-of-wealth-archy/moneyarchy types complain about industriously-enforcing that humankind become mechanically-enforced carrion?

    If parasitism is profitable, AND the only purpose of lives is for parasites to feed-on the helpless/carrion lives of their inferiors, then that is exactly what they want, isn’t it?

    For people who aren’t in the rightful-parasite class, … then it’s obviously a problem, but the ROOT problem is simply that the ones who commit within the life-exists-to-serve-money narcissism … includes many who objectively are helpless-prey, because they identify with the rightful-parasites-class…

    ( ALL class-systems are driven by people enforcing the class-regime because they identify with higher-class-than-they-are-objectively-in, & thereby class-systems are robust things, controlling social-evolution at scale.

    Brexit seems to have been partly the result of the class-system+“royals” orientation of the English people: their unconsciously-presumed-entitlement made them immune to evidence, & they broke their success-momentum for ideological fraud, exactly as class-based-validity ITSELF is ideological-fraud…

    So, class-based-“validity” is a “gateway ideology”, then, evidence shows.

    ( I wouldn’t have seen it if such prejudice hadn’t made my-life its puppet through decades, & then cracked just how fundamental prejudice is, cracking it, & seeing what it had done to others through/with my life ) )

    _ /\ _

  • recursive_recursion@piefed.caEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    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

    • ynthrepic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      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.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months 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.socialEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        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

        • WhatTheDuck@piefed.socialEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I highly doubt Reddit is actually gaining that many new users, but the number of accounts created? Sure.

          Reddit never has enough bots for their AI slop machine. They create more bot accounts to “boost engagement” via posts and comments.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
    01·
    11 months ago

    I mean I’m all for anti-furry propaganda, but AI slop really has gotten out of hand.