YouTube CEO Acknowledges 'AI Slop' Problem, Says Platform Will Curb Low-Quality AI Content (blog.youtube)
- Reference: 0180632814
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/21/1422227/youtube-ceo-acknowledges-ai-slop-problem-says-platform-will-curb-low-quality-ai-content
- Source link: https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/the-future-of-youtube-2026/
Mohan identified four AI-related areas that YouTube "must get right in 2026." The platform is working on tools that will let creators use AI to generate Shorts featuring their own likenesses and to experiment with music. "Just as the synthesizer, Photoshop and CGI revolutionized sound and visuals, AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in," he wrote. Features like autodubbing, he says, will "transform the viewer experience."
But "the rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka 'AI slop,'" he wrote. YouTube is building on its existing spam and clickbait detection systems to reduce the spread of such content. He also flagged deepfakes as a particular concern: "It's becoming harder to detect what's real and what's AI-generated." The platform plans to double down on AI labels and introduce tools that let creators protect their likenesses.
[1] https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/the-future-of-youtube-2026/
Bring back old YouTube with its non-AI slop (Score:3, Interesting)
I miss old YouTube. Back when "Broadcast Yourself" was a slogan. Back when people were making 3 to 7 minute videos to match an attention span raised on the Flash animations that preceded it, as opposed to trying to hit the magic 8:01 mark that allows midroll advertisements. Back when "slop channel" meant a [1]channel full of a pig eating slop [youtube.com].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@Pigiseatingslop
"transform the viewer experience." (Score:1)
> will "transform the viewer experience."
You mean.. from "I only use you on friday night on a phone call with an old friend, and too look up how to fix my car / washer / dryer whatever" to "Not using you at all?"
Seriously. Slashdot Collective says 'eat the rich?' I say "fuck all the techbros."
Yes, I'm narrowing down the carnage to just the techbros (and tech sisters, like that nutjob that headed Theranos)
They've unleashed a new cancer on society, by amplifying voices that were best left handing out flyers at street intersections. Not everyone
solution: more slop? (Score:2, Insightful)
So the solution to too much AI slop to add tools to create more slop...?
Fix the ADs!!! (Score:2)
I don't mind AI content (There's some good StarWars stuff that regular people can make now that is pretty good, tbh). But the Joe Rogan ads for crap needs to go!
If Youtube can make money by showing an ad then a real person should have to look at it first. How hard would that be? smh...
Re: (Score:2)
There is some good slop out there too. I don't know how to quantify quality slop, but there is at least one channel putting out some very funny videos that are complete nonsense. I would not want to see that go away but I don't think they are going for detecting AI vs not anyway. They had a bad slop problem before AI.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, well worth the cost of YouTube premium. At least for me
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Firefox + uBlock Origin still works fine. I'm still unsure why Chrome is so popular, there never was a time when it was better than Firefox.
FWIW though, if you're getting Joe Rogan ads, it's because of your history, probably watching similar content. It is always worth, from time to time, clearing your cookies and logging in again (or starting a new account if they're tying ads to logins, which right now they don't appear to be, but are clearly preparing to do.)
We need to stop AI slop. By creating more AI slop. (Score:3)
How did this guy keep his head from splitting in two the way he's talking out both sides of his mouth? Stop AI slop by creating more AI slop? What? Do these fools even listen to themselves anymore?
Re: (Score:2)
You've got to read it carefully.
It's the " low-quality AI slop" they want to crack down on. They're actively pursuing AI systems that generate video on demand, either unique to each viewer or specific to demographics.
They don't like the "low-quality AI slop", they want the high-quality AI slop, the AI-generated videos generated specifically for that individual that matches the algorithm.
And it's clear to everyone they want to be the ones generating the "high-quality AI videos" to cut the content creators
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. They're not dumping AI content. They're doubling down on making AI content indistinguishable from content generated by humans.
Low effort (Score:4, Interesting)
I like watching court cam videos, and Youtube is *constantly* recommending clone channels that clearly download someone else's video, slaps on an AI generated thumbnail and summary, then re-uploads it. I think the entire thing is automatic. I keep reporting the channels and Youtube keeps recommending more.
So, saying they are "cracking down" is kind of funny, as they aren't even doing the bare minimum enforcing their existing policies.
Re: (Score:2)
I think they are also trapped because they want to capture part of the TikTok market, but then they need to allow someone to take a popular video, slap an AI generated story with voice over and closed captioning on it, reupload as their own work so that they can get the eyeball time of the worlds 10 year olds.
Fake Ads (Score:2)
The majority of ads I see on YouTube these days are AI-slop deepfake celebrity endorsements, obviously-fake (and dangerous) medical scams, weight-loss salts, workout plans, etc. etc. I don't see anything in the CEO statement about that.
Give me a button that i press (Score:3)
And it pops up a menu where i can select both subtitles and voice language, and make this button remember the setting for all videos.
Is this THAT hard?
No incentive to stop AI slop (Score:2)
Trouble is AI slop is making YouTube a ton of money showing ads. Even if all the real creators were driven away, AI slop would still be bringing in the money. The trouble is most of YouTube's users don't seem to know or care that it's slop.
Very disheartening article on this: [1]https://fortune.com/2025/12/30... [fortune.com] . There's no way YouTube will pull the plug on this. If it's making this kid $700,000 a year, YouTube themselves are making far more, despite having to store all that slop.
[1] https://fortune.com/2025/12/30/ai-slop-faceless-youtube-accounts-adavia-davis-user-generated-content/
Too many AI slop indeed (Score:2)
One time I got 'fed' a series videos of basically babies being in precarious (dangerous) situations, only to be saved by a cat (with the parents' voices in the background calling the cat 'good' for saving the baby - yeah, that absurd). They were all obviously AI generated (like how the baby 'about to fall off the stairs' went physically through the railing posts somehow, to say nothing of the weirdness of the stairs themselves).
Of course there were some idiots that actually believed the obvious fake videos
reality check (Score:3)
I can't remember which event it was, but someone from youtube mentioned that when generative video AI came to the scene, youtube's data ingestion went up many times higher than normal.
To the point where they started to max out their data storage and had to start culling things.
This is likely more of that.