Over 21% of YouTube Shorts is AI slop, with creators earning millions farming views

AI Slop Dominates YouTube Shorts Feed

A comprehensive study from video-editing service Kapwing has exposed the extent to which AI slop has infiltrated YouTube, revealing that more than 21% of content served to new users consists of low-quality AI-generated content 1

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. The research defines AI slop as careless, low-quality content generated by computer applications and designed solely to farm views and subscriptions 3

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. Even more concerning, an additional 33% of content falls into the brainrot category—compulsive, nonsensical, low-quality video content that often incorporates generative AI elements 1

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To conduct the study, Kapwing created a brand-new YouTube account to simulate an untainted experience with YouTube's algorithm 2

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. The researchers tracked the first 500 YouTube Shorts videos served to this fresh account, reasoning that an algorithm-free profile would provide an accurate overview of YouTube content at large without personalized recommendations skewing results 1

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. While the first 16 videos were mercifully free of AI-generated content, the floodgates opened quickly thereafter. In total, 104 of the first 500 videos, or 21%, were AI slop, while 165, or 33%, qualified as brainrot 3

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Global Consumption Patterns and Top Earning Channels

The study also examined global consumption of viral AI content by analyzing the top 100 trending YouTube channels in every country 1

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. South Korea leads the world in AI slop consumption, with its top 11 trending AI channels accumulating over 8.45 billion views 3

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. The country's Three Minutes Wisdom channel, featuring photorealistic footage of wild animals being defeated by cute household pets, has racked up 2.02 billion views by itself and earns an estimated $4 million annually 2

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Pakistan ranked second with 5.34 billion views across its top AI slop channels, while the United States came in third with 3.39 billion views 2

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. However, when measuring subscribers rather than views, Spain dominates with 20.22 million people subscribing to trending AI channels, followed by Egypt with 17.9 million and the United States with 14.47 million 3

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. The most popular AI channel globally is India's Bandar Apna Dost, which has accumulated 2.07 billion views and brings in an estimated $4.25 million per year 1

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Why Creators and Platforms Have No Incentive to Change

The proliferation of AI-generated content on social media feeds is driven by simple economics. Content creation tools powered by AI generators like OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo mean very low-cost or even no-cost content for creators 1

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. When creators can generate videos with minimal effort and YouTube's algorithm reinforces this behavior by pushing these videos and rewarding engagement, the cycle continues unabated 1

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Oleksandr, an AI YouTube creator based in Ukraine, told The Guardian that only the top 5% of creators ever monetize a video, and only 1% make a living from it 5

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. Yet the potential for virality and substantial earnings keeps creators churning out content. The US-based Spanish-language channel Cuentos Facinantes has earned an estimated $2.66 million with 1.28 billion views 2

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YouTube only serves up what it perceives as popular or engaging, meaning users must be watching this style of content 1

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. While some platforms like Meta and Pinterest are taking steps to label AI content, and some AIs like Gemini can now detect whether a video was made by AI, as long as users keep consuming it, there's no incentive for creators or platforms to lessen AI slop 1

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. TikTok has rolled out features enabling users to keep AI slop out of their feeds, but YouTube has yet to implement similar measures 2

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The Broader Context of AI Content Proliferation

YouTube isn't the only part of the web being overrun by AI-generated content. Written content is now more prominently AI-generated than ever, with the percentage of AI articles on the web slightly above 50% as of May 2025 2

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. Even professional workplaces aren't immune, with four in ten employees in the United States receiving "workslop" material over the past year—AI-generated work content that lacks substance to meaningfully advance tasks 2

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The flood of unreality represents an endpoint of an algorithmically determined internet optimized for engagement and turbocharged with powerful new tools 5

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. It's also the product of an underlying global economy increasingly dependent on a few powerful technology companies and platforms, one which appears to offer dwindling returns for real work but lavish fortunes for the lucky, viral few 5

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. Merriam-Webster's selection of "slop" as its word of the year underscores how this phenomenon has come to define the internet experience 3

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