AI Conquers YouTube: Nearly 33% of Your Feed Is Now Fake Content

YouTube’s algorithm has been quietly conquered by artificial intelligence… and the numbers are more jaw-dropping than you think.
Research research published on Dec. 29 by The Guardian reveals that between 21-33% of content in fresh user feeds now consists of AI-generated material, fundamentally reshaping what millions of viewers see every single day.
Upon creating a new YouTube account, researchers discovered that 104 of the first 500 videos were AI-generated, per The Guardian. Another 165 qualified as “brainrot” content designed purely to capture attention through mindless engagement.
The phenomenon has become so widespread that “AI slop” earned recognition as Word of the Year for 2025 by both Merriam-Webster and Australia’s national dictionary. The rise of AI-generated material represents a fundamental shift in how content gets created and consumed across the internet.
Most successful AI channel generated over 2B views
Behind the scenes, a new breed of content creators has emerged, and they’re generating serious revenue with minimal human effort.
The most successful AI slop channel globally, “Bandar Apna Dost” from India, has racked up over 2.07 billion views and generates an estimated $4.25 million annually.
Just 278 channels exclusively uploading AI-generated content have collectively drawn 63 billion views and recorded 221 million subscribers. These channels could collectively generate approximately $117 million in annual revenue, according to estimates from video-editing company Kapwing’s comprehensive study.
Global domination is happening faster than anyone imagined. Spain leads in subscribers for AI slop channels with 20.22 million combined subscribers, while South Korea dominates in views with 8.45 billion total views. In South Korea, a single channel called “Three Minutes Wisdom” accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s total AI slop views, potentially earning over $4 million per year from advertisements alone.
The business model is simple: AI tools can now produce videos for mere cents while maintaining quality that algorithms consider “good enough.”
The war for authenticity enters its decisive phase
YouTube’s response to the sites AI-generated content has been mixed.
While CEO Neal Mohan has defended generative AI in video creation, arguing that creativity lies in human originality rather than the percentage of AI involvement, the platform has also begun blocking revenue sharing with channels posting repetitive and “inauthentic” content.
The company requires creators to disclose altered or synthetic media only in limited cases, such as when content could mislead viewers about real-world events. However, YouTube hasn’t publicly defined a threshold at which AI-generated content becomes ineligible for monetization, leaving creators and viewers in a gray area.
This digital transformation is reshaping society’s relationship with information and entertainment. Experts warn that repetitive exposure to fabricated visuals can reinforce false beliefs through the “illusory truth effect,” while the reduced cost of producing content at scale enables new forms of political and ideological manipulation.
Don’t miss our coverage of OpenAI’s Sora 2 AI video generator, the breakthrough tech that lets you create realistic, audio-synced clips and even insert yourself into AI-generated videos.
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