Quarter of YouTube Shorts are generated by artificial intelligence

A study by Kapwing found that YouTube Shorts’ recommendation feed is increasingly filled with content created with the help of artificial intelligence or of frankly low quality. The analysis found that 21% of recommended short videos were generated by artificial intelligence, and another 33% were so-called brainrot content.

For the study, the company created a new YouTube account and analyzed the first 500 videos that the algorithm showed in the Shorts feed. The first few dozen videos looked quite ordinary, but soon AI content began to appear en masse among the recommendations. As a result, out of 500 videos, 104 turned out to be generated by artificial intelligence, and 165 were materials with minimal content value, focused more on maintaining attention than on benefiting the viewer.

How many YouTube Shorts videos are generated by artificial intelligence

Separately, Kapwing analyzed the popularity of AI channels in different countries by the number of subscribers. The largest audience of such channels was gathered in Spain – over 20 million subscribers. The most notable example was the channel Imperio de jesus, which publishes religious videos and has almost 5.9 million subscribers.

At the same time, the leader in terms of the number of views is South Korea, where AI content has gained over 8.45 billion views. Spain was only in fifth place in this indicator. Among individual authors, the record holder was the Indian channel Bandar Apna Dost, which not only collected the largest number of views, but also brought its owner the highest income – about $ 4.25 million.

Against this backdrop, YouTube is gradually tightening its control over the use of artificial intelligence, especially in cases where such content infringes copyright. Previously, the platform has already blocked major channels that published AI-generated trailers that imitate the products of famous film companies.