I turned 30 this year, which means I’m the perfect age demographic to have stood alongside YouTube as it grew from silly home video clips 20 years ago to full-scale productions hosted by some of the most influential people on the planet.
Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has been by my side through thick and thin, providing tips and tricks for my favorite hobbies, entertainment, and even moral support when the days feel rough.
At the start of the year, I upgraded to one of the best OLED TVs, and I also purchased an Apple TV 4K. While I always watched YouTube on the big screen prior to these upgrades, I found that over the last few months, I’ve started to notice a strange pattern in my YouTube algorithm.
At first, I thought the generic imagery I was seeing across YouTube was something to do with the Apple TV app, but more and more AI-generated thumbnails started popping up in my searches, and despite making sure to flag the videos, I couldn’t quite get it to stop.
I thought it was a me problem. That was until I read a new report from the Garbage Day newsletter, which claims four of the top 10 most subscribed YouTube channels in May “featured AI-generated material in every video.”
YouTube has an AI problem
According to the Garbage Day newsletter, “In May, four of the top 10 YouTube channels with the most subscribers featured AI-generated material in every video. Not all the channels are using the same AI programs, and there are indications that some contain human-made elements, but none of these channels has ever uploaded a video that was made entirely without AI – and each has uploaded a constant stream of videos, which is crucial to their success.”
The fastest growing channel is called Masters of Prophecy, which has over 31 million subscribers despite its first video not being even a year old. The channel is filled with AI-generated music and thumbnails, and the growth has been exponential: in February, Masters of Prophecy had under a thousand subscribers.
Interestingly, YouTube isn’t the only creative outlet being flooded by AI. Just yesterday, we reported on The Velvet Sundown, a supposedly AI-generated rock band with over 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Music isn’t the only AI-generated content on YouTube; Chick of Honor is a channel with over 10 million subscribers, and all of its content is AI-generated Shorts with cute animals starring as the protagonists.
Despite having over 10 million subscribers, the views don’t necessarily reflect the huge audience. Most of the channel’s Shorts have anywhere between 20,000 and 700,000 views.
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Just the tip of the iceberg
As I think about YouTube and how it has gone from being the most authentic form of video content to an incredibly polished beast with millions of high-quality videos released on the platform each day, I worry that as AI-generated channels start to break through it will be the end of what once made YouTube great.
AI videos are becoming more and more prominent as video generation models like Veo 3 continue to improve. In fact, I’d suspect most of us have seen an AI-generated video on social media in the last week and not even realized it’s fake.
As AI content becomes the norm on YouTube, there’s a concern that we’ll get to the point where it’s harder to source video from authentic content creators than find an AI-generated alternative.
This is just the beginning of AI video, but if YouTube is to continue to exist, complete with the human element that made it so fantastic in the first place, Google needs to find a way to truly differentiate AI video from reality.
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