If you feel like social media has gotten even more frivolous lately, you’re not alone. And it’s for the exact reason you think it is.
A recent study revealed some alarming stats – anywhere from 21-33% of YouTube’s feed is AI slop or brainrot videos. That is, low-quality, procedurally-generated content made specifically to game the platform’s algorithm and farm views.
So, for the older viewers amongst us, complaining about the overall decline in digital media, they’re not entirely wrong.
Of course, automated video tools are nothing new – “YouTube automation”, where creators farm out content creation to third parties (or automated programs), has been around for some time now, with text-to-speech channels spreading copypasta garbage and animation with extremely low production values.
This type of content arguably hit its peak during the pandemic, when digital creators were often hamstrung by compulsory isolation.
But the new wave of AI content is even more insidious, because despite its low production values, viewers believe it. And it’s not just cutesy cat videos.
It’s geopolitical propaganda, pushing narratives that true believers are only too happy to accept without a second thought. It’s slanderous trash trying to defame the character of practically every politician and celebrity. And while I won’t shed a tear over politicians taking a digital shellacking, there’s something disconcerting about scandals that owe their entire existence to phony AI content spouting obvious lies.
I’ve spoken before about the true danger of generative AI – and its potential to change elections and effect the world in monumental ways – and this sort of garbage content is only increasing in complexity (despite the fact that many viewers buy into the obvious, low-quality rubbish currently infesting social media like a virus).
What happens when even tech-savvy users can’t distinguish between reality and AI? I’d be willing to bet that at least some of PSD’s audience – by any metric, one of the smartest groups on the planet – has fallen victim to AI drivel. It’s hard not to.
And while AI slop accounts don’t currently occupy the Top 10 YouTube Channels (by subscribers) – which are music/media companies, kids' content, and famous influencers like Mr. Beast – and they don’t even land in the top 100, they’re growing at a frightening pace.
About 10% of the fastest-growing channels proffer purely AI-generated content, and some countries have bought into the automated hype more readily than others – like Spain, which sports over 20 million subscribers for trending AI slop channels, and South Korea, which wracked up nearly 8.5 billion views for AI content.
So, for those claiming “social media” isn’t social or media, it’s worse than that – it’s slowly losing the human touch altogether.
