Artificial intelligence content forms 21% of the feed of new YouTube users

New research shows that YouTube is inundated with low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence. According to Kapwing’s study, if you create a new account on YouTube, about 21-33% of the initial suggested videos will be content called “AI Slop” or videos that lead to “Brainrot”.

By creating new user accounts and reviewing the first 500 suggested videos, Kapwing researchers found that 104 videos (21%) fell into the AI ​​Slop category and 165 videos (33%) fell into the Brainrot category.

AI Slop content refers to low-quality videos that are created with artificial intelligence and only to attract views. In contrast, Brainrot’s content consists of repetitive, weird or hypnotic clips that have no particular content value but keep the user glued to the page. This means that a significant part of what new users see is not the result of human creativity, but the result of machine processes.

Artificial intelligence videos on YouTube

Contrary to popular belief, this phenomenon is not limited to a specific region, and countries such as South Korea, India, and Spain are seen at the top of the list of producers of this content. For example, South Korea’s AI channels are number one with over 8.45 billion views, and the Three Minutes Wisdom channel alone has over 2 billion views in the country.

Also, India is one of the main players in this field, having a channel called Bandar Apna Dost, which alone has 2 billion views. With more than 20 million subscribers to AI channels, Spain has surpassed even the United States and Brazil.

These channels, which produce no real human content, generate millions of dollars in revenue and have impacted YouTube’s economy. Estimates show that some of these channels earn tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue annually.

For example, Hindi channel Bandar Apna Dost alone is estimated to earn around $4.25 million annually. The American channel Cuentos Facinantes, which publishes low-quality Dragon Ball-themed videos, is the most popular channel in this category with nearly 6 million subscribers.

The main reason for the expansion of these contents is the flaws in YouTube’s proposed algorithms and the low cost of video production. AI videos are very cheap and quick to produce and are optimized to pique users’ curiosity and keep them scrolling endlessly.

New users who do not have a history of activity are more exposed to these contents because the algorithm does not yet know their tastes. This is a serious alarm bell for YouTube, because if one-fifth of the initial offers to new users consist of worthless content, their user experience will be ruined before they find real content creators. Experts believe that YouTube should provide better control tools to limit this type of content like TikTok.

It is interesting to know that the Australian Macquarie dictionary chose AI Slop as the word of the year 2025.