Study reveals just how much AI slop is on YouTube
If you feel like there’s a lot of neglect when it comes to AI on YouTube, that’s because there’s a plot AI slop on YouTube.
A new study from video editing company Kapwing, reported by the Guardian, found that more than one in five videos that the YouTube Shorts algorithm shows to new users is low-quality AI-generated content.
Merriam-Webster names “slop” the word of the year, and boy was it sloppy in 2025
One of the most interesting parts of the Kapwing study is that of the first 500 YouTube Shorts videos in a brand new, intact YouTube Shorts algorithm, 104 were AI-generated and 165 were brainiacs – or 21% and 33%, respectively.
Mashable Trend Report
Of course, the love for AI differs between countries. Kapwing found that AI slop channels in Spain have a total of 20.22 million subscribers, more than any other country, but have fewer AI slop channels among its top 100 channels than other countries. The United States has nine channels among its top 100 channels and ranks third with 14.47 million subscribers.
YouTube isn’t the only social media beast whose content falls into the depths of AI despair, but the Kapwing study makes it clear that AI slops won’t lead anywhere. As Mashable’s Tim Marcin reported earlier this month, AI garbage is taking over our feeds, from fake animals on surveillance tapes to heavy machinery cleaning barnacles from whales.
Topics
Artificial intelligence
