Brainrot YouTube videos have raked in more than 63,000,000,000 views, generating about £90,000,000 in revenue every year.
The low quality AI content – designed to farm views – could make up more than 20 per cent of YouTube’s feed, according to a new report by video-editing company Kapwing.
The AI slop featured in 104 of the first 500 YouTube shorts clips shown to a new account created by the researchers.
Kapwing surveyed 15,000 of the world’s most popular channels on the platform – the top 100 in every country – and discovered that 278 of them contain only AI slop.
The channels are distributed across the globe and have millions of subscribers.
Spanish AI slop channels have the most subscribers, sitting at 20 million people, or nearly half the country’s population.
AI channels clocked in 18 million followers in Egypt, 14.5 million in the US, and 13.5 million in Brazil.
Viewing figures for AI brainrot is through the roof in some countries.
In South Korea alone, trending brainrot channels have amassed 8.45 billion views, which is 164 times more than the total population.
Five of the ten trending AI slop channels with the most views are based in South Korea.
Typical videos raking in views include fake K-pop nonsense music videos and looped synthetic kitten clips, Kapwing said.
YouTube users in Pakistan recorded 5.34 billion views on AI slop, with the US not far behind on 3.29 billion views.
AI slop videos on YouTube appear to be highly lucrative.
According to Kapwing, the Indian AI channel Bandar Apna Dost has the most views of any other, with 2.4 billion views, and could make as much as £3.1 million.
Another Singapore-based channel, Pouty Frenchie, appears to target children.
It follows tghe adventures of a French bulldog, with many videos set to a soundtrack of children’s laughter.
Kapwing estimates it could earn nearly £3 million a year.
A previous Guardian analysis this year found that nearly 10 percent of YouTube’s fastest growing channels were AI slop.
Kapwing say they also created a new YouTube account and recorded how often AI slop and brainrot was shown to them.
In total, they say 104 of the first 500 videos were AI-generated.
(Picture KAPWING)
A YouTube spokesperson said: ‘Generative AI is a tool, and like any tool it can be used to make both high- and low-quality content.
‘We remain focused on connecting our users with high-quality content, regardless of how it was made.
‘All content uploaded to YouTube must comply with our community guidelines, and if we find that content violates a policy, we remove it.’
Why do people watch AI brainrot and what impact does it have?
Emilie Owens a media researcher at The University of Oslo in Norway, says that young people seek our brainrot as a way to switching off from a stressful world.
She explained in a recent essay: ‘For these teenagers, brain rot on TikTok is one tool for tuning out all the stress.
‘Brain rot is an oasis of calm amid the media chaos.
‘They know that brain rot is a waste of time, but they don’t express any genuine fear about it.’
This kind of bizarre content is also exceptionally good at sparking ’emotion and anger,’ explains Cambridge University researcher Eryk Salvaggio.
He added: ‘AI slop is extremely viral, and so is outrage.’
While the term brainrot is often used humoursly, it has sparked concerns among experts for the mental health of ‘Generation Alpha’.
According to the US-based mental health provider Newport Institute, young people can quickly become addicted to social media and actually suffer ‘brain rot’ themselves.
They explained: ‘Scrolling through social media platforms spikes the neurochemical dopamine, which produces feelings of satisfaction and pleasure.
‘The more you do it, the more you want to do it. Your brain associates scrolling with a feeling of gratification, even when you’re aware of its negative consequences.
‘In this way, scrolling can become a behavioral addiction.’
The experts explain that this kind of ‘doomscrolling’ can ‘desensitise peple people to negative stimuli’ and make it harder for people to feel positive emotions.
For young people in particular, this can lead to issues with planning, organisation, problem-solving and decision-making.
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