Video editing firm Kapwing, in a new research , reports that 21-33% of YouTube’s feed may consist of AI slop or brainrot videos. Merriam-Webster describes ‘slop’ as digital content of low quality that is usually produced by artificial intelligence. This is used to farm views and subscriptions. The rapid increase of such content on YouTube can be hard to avoid.
New report suggests that over 20% of YouTube’s feed is now AI slop
Kapwing simulated the experience of an “untainted” YouTube Shorts algorithm by creating a new YouTube account. This is to find out how much of YouTube contains AI-generated videos. It noted the occurrence of AI slop or brainrot videos among the first 500 videos in the feed. It notes that they haven’t come across such content for the first 16 videos in the feed. In total, 104 (21%) of the first 500 videos were AI, while 165 (33%) were brainrot.
Kapwing notes that whether this prevalence of slop and brainrot on their test feed represents the engineering of YouTube’s algorithm, or the sheer proliferation of such videos that are being uploaded, is a mystery.
Kapwing also analyzed the global consumption of AI slop . Key findings show that South Korea leads, with 11 trending AI channels having a combined figure of over 8.45 billion views. Pakistan comes second with 5.34 billion views, while the US is in third with 3.39 billion views. South Korean AI slop channel, Three Minutes Wisdom, alone accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s massive view count, with 2.02 billion views.
India’s Bandar Apna Dost has the most views of any AI channel, with 2.07 billion. It’s also the highest earner, with approx $4.25 million per year. Having said this, it’s not just YouTube . Social media, online articles, images, and other online content, which were once human, are now apparently AI.
