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More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are 'AI slop', study finds
- aeternum 9mo agoYouTube already slaps creators with demonetization for a wide array of topics and copyright strikes for minor sound clips. They could easily require creators to label videos that have AI-generated video and also build detection tools themselves. Will they?
- add-sub-mul-div 9mo agoGoogle is in the business of selling slop creation tools. They want you to consume it, they don't want to provide ways to filter it out.
- blibble 9mo agoI assume the end game is youtube will eventually almost entirely be their own slop at which point they won't have to pay pesky creators
- DoctorOW 9mo agoYouTube (and really any social media) was kind of a mistake. You can argue traditional mass media was imperfect, but at least it was up to public scrutiny. An algorithm is manipulative in a much more opaque way.
- scotty79 9mo agoYouTube is amazing repository of millions of practical skills and knowledge. It's achievement at least on par with Wikipedia. Calling it a mistake just because there's some entertainment there as well that not everybody is fond of is a bit harsh.
- DoctorOW 9mo agoI would say the funding model is what makes the difference. Wikipedia sells information (in the form of "Donate or this could all go away") and is financially incentivized to make that information comprehensive and high quality. YouTube sells influence, and it is precisely that practice I object to. Think about the videos on your homepage, in your recommended videos, which publishers you hear from immediately and which disappeared. I can see it trying to manipulate me.
- andsoitis 9mo ago> Think about the videos on your homepage, in your recommended videos, which publishers you hear from immediately and which disappeared. I can see it trying to manipulate me. There are billions of videos on YouTube with millions getting added every day. YouTube has to decide what to put in front of you.
- scotty79 9mo agoYou are not required to browse the home page nor any recommendation list.
- blharr 9mo agoExcept it's also a battleground for a ton of insidious recommendations that now distract you instead of educate you. I know many people who spend 10 hours+ a day just listening to inflammatory content It's also not just the consumers. So many great educational channels have been forced to appeal to click bait or lower quality content because of the nature of the platform
- brendyn 9mo agoYou can download the entirety of Wikipedia. YouTube is blocking YouTube downloaders. It's a crime against humanity that they lured people into to contribute videos to this platform. By losing money for years before being acquired, they ensured nobody could possibly compete with their own video platform. Its not a nonforprofit or library. They can freely censor, restrict, and edit videos as they please, especially for deceased accounts.
- The_President 9mo agoSeems like a mistake to rely on it for anything other than entertainment or simple education. Perhaps what makes it a mistake is now it's yet another vehicle for distraction content gaming for attention space. Parents will attest, that it's wonderful to put a tablet in front of a child to instantly hush them, but then it becomes a dependency where it is increasingly harder to control outbursts of emotion without resorting to the tablet. It's become a like a drug to children, and the mistake is in seeing the process as benevolent until this far along.
- bfkwlfkjf 9mo ago> Seems like a mistake to rely on it for anything other than entertainment I disagree, shouldn't be used even for entertainment. Going to YouTube for entertainment and relying on it to guide you is how you end up being radicalised on certain topics.
- The_President 9mo agoEntertainment: Nothing wrong with watching the football game on it. Agree that certain other types of "entertainment" material on there is toxic.
- favflam 9mo agoI started seeing AI slop of US military members celebrating their 1776 USD "bonus".
- upupupandaway 9mo agoI constantly think whether it’s viable to build robust software to get rid of slop, AI or non AI. I see tough challenges (platforms don’t care), but also see value. Does anyone have an opinion?
- tim333 9mo agoIt would probably be good if it worked. Not quite sure how you'd automatically detect it.
- blharr 9mo agoBefore you used to manage your own subscriptions or communities to join. That was enough. My suggestion would be just having a whitelist for the channels or sources you want to follow that push non-slop content.
- tehwebguy 9mo agoMake sure to always select “Don’t recommend this channel” for garbage
- galkk 9mo agoOne of most brutal things is amount of slop on kids channels. Huntrx singing soda pop, Lego singing soda pop, Sonic singing soda pop, ponies singing soda pop… the amount of slop there is brutal . I literally don’t see any way to approach it except just banning YouTube and downloading and curating videos in advance.
- jenthoven 9mo agoIn Australia, kids aren't allowed to have YouTube accounts anymore, which means that they'll get served this generic lineup of shorts described in this article. 33% brain rot....I wonder if kids will see more and more brainrot since the algorithm doesn't know anything about them. Tabula rasa.
- bignurgle 9mo agothe other 80% is porn-lite, its disgusting
- Bender 9mo agoThat 20% becomes 90+% if one accidentally clicks on the AI slop which tells me that Youtube somehow know they are AI slop and are profiteering off it thus it will never go away in my opinion. If I click on that crap I have to exit the browser, run Bleachbit and start over again. I never log into Youtube and now I am extra careful to avoid clicking on that crap.