Opinion AI is taking the You out of YouTube

In 2005, when the internet was young — accessed mostly through dial-up connections and featuring user-created websites — the birth of YouTube heralded a new era of digital content creation, and creativity. In grainy footage, shot in low-light conditions and against make-shift backdrops, ordinary people offered a glimpse into their lives, their nerdy obsessions and passions. Would-be musicians, artists and filmmakers showcased their craft, with many, like singers Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan, finding stardom. This was the promise of YouTube, when the “you” in its name meant something. Twenty years on, however, with AI entering the chat, that promise is becoming increasingly fragile.

“AI slop” — purely AI-generated content, usually nonsensical, with no substance and storyline or any purpose other than grabbing clicks and views — is taking over YouTube. A recent data analysis by The Guardian found that “nearly one in 10 of the fastest growing YouTube channels globally are showing AI-generated content only”, with many of the channels posting “repetitive and ‘inauthentic’ content”. A platform once celebrated as a launch pad for everyman is now being crowded with content that is disconnected from anyone’s lived experience and which lacks the textures and tones of human creativity, the telling flaws and endearing glitches that speak of people, not algorithms.

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The proliferation of blindly-automated, prompt-driven creations means that creators will now have to compete for views and — increasingly, ad revenue — with content-generation farms that can upload multiple, polished videos in a single day. It is also bad news for consumers. AI may have much to offer when used right, but no prompt, however precisely worded, can generate the many shades of human ingenuity and whimsy that YouTube is home to.