One In Five Videos On New YouTube Feeds Is 'AI Slop' Now — And India Is A Hotspot

Open YouTube on a new phone, scroll without logging in, or watch what plays when a child taps “next.” Within minutes, the screen fills with unusual animations—cartoon animals with human muscles, repeated disasters, and looping scenes set to calming music or fast-paced tracks. The visuals often include candy forests, explosions and sequences that do not move forward. The videos are difficult to stop once they begin.

This is not a glitch. It is the algorithm—the system that decides what users see—working as designed. According to a recent investigation by Kapwing, more than 20% of the videos recommended to new YouTube users are now what it calls “AI slop”—low-quality videos generated using artificial intelligence and produced to draw views and advertising money.

The scale of it suggests this is no longer a fringe problem but a structural feature of today’s social media economy.

The findings are based on research by video-editing firm Kapwing, which analysed 15,000 of YouTube’s most popular channels, covering the top 100 channels in every country. It identified 278 channels made up entirely of AI slop. Together, these channels have accumulated 63 billion views, attracted 221 million subscribers, and generate an estimated $117 million a year in advertising revenue.

To have an unbiased view, researchers also created a brand-new YouTube account. Of the first 500 videos recommended, 104 were AI slop. Nearly one-third fell into what the study calls “brainrot”—repetitive videos made to keep viewers watching without clear progression.

India sits right at the centre of this trend. The most-viewed channel in the study, Bandar Apna Dost, is based in India and has logged 2.4 billion views.

Its videos feature surreal AI-generated scenes: an anthropomorphic rhesus monkey alongside a Hulk-like figure fighting demons or flying helicopters made of tomatoes. There is no plot, no dialogue, and no explanation. Kapwing estimates the channel could be earning as much as $4.25 million annually.

Children appear to be a major audience of this AI slop. Kapwing notes that channels like Pouty Frenchie, based in Singapore, follow a cartoon bulldog through candy forests and fantasy worlds, often accompanied by the sound of children’s laughter. Others, such as Cuentos Facinantes in the US, package simple animated stories for young viewers and have built millions of subscribers.

Not all AI slop is whimsical. The AI World, a Pakistan-based channel with 1.3 billion views, posts AI-generated videos of floods and poverty, set to soothing 'relaxing rain' soundtracks—content that blurs the line between spectacle and exploitation.

Behind these videos lies a semi-structured, global industry. Well-established creators share tactics on Telegram, WhatsApp and Discord, often selling courses on how to make viral AI content. But it’s far from easy money. Monetisation rules are opaque, scams are common, and those selling “how-to” courses often make more than the creators themselves.

Many of the creators also come from middle-income countries such as India, Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil and Vietnam, where YouTube income can exceed local wages.

YouTube, however, has responded to allegations of increasing AI slop, saying that generative AI—technology that creates images or videos from prompts—is only a tool. The company says it removes content that violates its policies. The data, however, shows such videos continue to spread through recommendations.