YouTube is nothing without its advertisers. The beating heart of the video platform, big box companies have been locked in a historic game of Whac-a-Mole against low-quality YouTube content, which they say leads to a lowered perception of brands when paired with their ads.

In the past, these high-risk videos took the form of right-wing conspiracy theorists, medical misinformation, and child exploitation.

Now, in 2025, it's AI slop.

Recent reporting by The Guardian details the staggering rise of artificially rendered slop on YouTube. For starters, nearly ten percent of the fastest-growing YouTube channels are striking it big on AI garbage alone, pumping out incredible videos arguing that giants built the pyramids, or scenes of babies crawling into space shuttles.

But what really stands out is that the Google-owned video platform seems to be fighting back against the onslaught, at least for now.

Starting in spring of 2024, YouTube began updating its user policies to stem the tide of AI schlock. These measures include banning expired domain abuse, spam uploaded en masse, and search engine manipulation. Accounts caught engaging in these practices could have their videos forced lower down the search feed, or unlisted altogether.

Of course, there were some loopholes. AI slop farmers could still leverage YouTube's Partnership program, the system that allows content creators to monetize their content. That changed in a recent monetization update, which targeted volume of content, as well as the quality, by going after "inauthentic" video producers.

Google's decision to de-slopify YouTube is a low bar to clear, and certainly not a choice made out of some altruistic love for human content creators. Reading between the lines, the streaming platform will still allow AI-generated content, just as long as accounts aren't spamming it.

Instead, the decision not to allow high-volume schlock is best understood as a way to keep advertisers hooked — but that could certainly change. Should YouTube decide it makes better financial sense to pursue quantity instead of quality in its ad strategy, there's no telling how it could amend its policies, or if we'll even know about it.

At the moment, human-produced, long-form YouTube videos seem to be the preferred choice for marketers looking for abundant waters to float their wares. But on other platforms, like Meta's Instagram and Facebook, AI spam isn't just tolerated, it's rewarded with huge payouts.

So while YouTube may be holding back the worst excesses of the AI slop-ageddon, it wouldn't take much to nudge it in the opposite direction. Stranger things have happened.

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