YouTube is cracking down on AI slop. (Photo by Classen/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
ullstein bild via Getty Images
In the digital landscape of 2026, AI-generated content is everywhere, but YouTube intends to use AI to reduce the flow of slop.
In his annual letter to the creator community, YouTube CEO Neal Mohen promised that the platform would crack down on “AI slop.”
“The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka ‘AI slop.’ As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time,” Mohen wrote.
To reduce the wave of slop, Mohen vowed to expand the platform’s controversial use of AI moderation.
“To reduce the spread of low quality AI content, we’re actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content,” he wrote.
YouTubers have criticized the platform’s approach to AI moderation, with several large creators claiming to have mistakenly been demonetized and banned, their channels only reinstated after public outcry.
Mohen also promised to introduce new generative AI tools for creators, such as allowing YouTubers to generate AI Shorts using their own likeness.
While the letter sent mixed signals regarding AI, Mohen’s acknowledgement that the platform is overrun with slop seems a step in the right direction.
AI has become a very contentious topic on the platform, with major YouTubers releasing videos criticizing the “sloppification” of the web.
AI channels that exclusively post synthetic content are managing to attract millions of views, despite public backlash against AI slop.
Why YouTube Has A Generative AI Problem
YouTube’s algorithm boosts channels which upload as frequently as possible, giving AI slop channels a considerable advantage over slower, steadier human creators.
A study from video-editing company Kapwing found that more than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are AI slop.
YouTube is now hosting fake history channels recounting events that never happened, and incoherent AI animations for bored young children.
Art made by no one, generated faster than any human can create.
YouTube Shorts Boosted AI Slop
In 2020, YouTube introduced YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok, famously leading to the rise of Skibidi Toilet, a bizarre animated series often described as “brainrot.”
However, Skibidi Toilet is the unique work of a human creator, singlehandedly animated by YouTuber Alexey Gerasimov.
Thanks to AI, the bar for brainrot has significantly lowered, and it’s never been easier to churn it out.
YouTube’s embrace of short-form content helped AI lead the race to the bottom, as Shorts favor quick cuts and attention-grabbing imagery, both of which play into the strengths of video-generation models.
Viewers don’t expect Shorts to have the narrative cohesion of a typical YouTube video—they are disposable helpings of content, quickly forgotten.
AI slop is pure sensory overload, empty calories that give the viewer nothing to reflect on, other than to wonder what they just watched.
Hopefully, YouTube is serious about cracking down, or viewers might start to turn their attention elsewhere.