AI slop

Google has announced changes to the search functionality of YouTube, adding new filters and renaming some options for the sake of clarity.

One of the biggest changes is the new option to choose the type of content which should be included in results. For anyone who is more interested in seeking out long-form videos, this is extremely significant as it provides a way to avoid YouTube Shorts by opting to exclude them.

Anyone who spends time on YouTube knows low quality AI generated videos are flooding the platform. A new global study by Kapwing looked at just how this slop and brainrot content (as it's known) is spreading across different countries and, perhaps more interestingly, how the biggest AI channels compare with traditional creators for both reach and earnings.

The report, which looked at more than fifteen thousand YouTube channels, arrives at a time when people are still arguing over the creative and ethical value of AI in video production. Film schools now teach classes on the use and ethics of generative tools, and brands are experimenting with AI in their creative work -- with mixed results.

Spotify has removed more than 75 million spam tracks in the last year, a move it says is part of its response to the rapid growth of generative AI in music.

The audio streaming giant announced the figure alongside new policies to curb spam uploads, protect artists from impersonation, and give listeners clearer information about when AI tools are involved in a track’s creation.

YouTube has become overrun with mass-produced content generated by artificial intelligence. Known as AI slop, such content has spread cancerously across the video platform as pseudo creators seek to make a quick buck.

Now Google has had enough. Seeking to de-incentivize the creation of such content, it is updating YouTube policies so that it will be much more difficult to make money from AI slop.