YouTube’s fastest growing gold rush isn’t creators anymore, it’s AI slop channels pulling billions of views and millions in revenue

YouTube is no longer driven only by human creators. The fastest growth now comes from AI slop channels. Most of these pages have one goal: to get attention and gather views. They do not even care about the quality of their videos. In fact, most of the videos are low-quality, made with AI tools. Some of these channels have reached millions of subscribers and billions of views.

For example, India’s Bandar Apna Dost alone has over two billion views and may earn more than four million dollars per year. In South Korea and Spain, AI slop channels dominate top trending lists. Their videos often follow repeated plots or the same visual style. The goal is not art, but speed and scale.

AI slop brings high income. Each view can turn into ad revenue, and making clips with AI is cheap. For YouTube, this growth means higher ad revenue. However, there is a catch. Most brands that pay for ads do not want their products featured in low-quality AI-generated videos. They need to know that the content hosted by the site where their ad appears is of decent quality and trustworthy. 

Many may dislike having ads appear on slop videos that lack skill or professionalism. YouTube’s CEO says AI could change video like the synthesizer changed music, but what matters is human input, not the tool. That is true for creators seeking to make art, but less so for channels flooding the site with low-effort clips. The clash is clear: rapid growth versus the need for trusted content.

New user feeds show the scale of the change. A test of 500 short clips found that one in three was brainrot and over 20 percent was AI-generated.

This flood of low-quality content may come from both the algorithm and mass uploads. Repeated exposure can shape beliefs, even when viewers know a clip is fake. The mind responds to what it sees, making these clips addictive and persuasive.

For students and creators, media literacy may be more vital than film skills alone. The real challenge is learning to spot noise, check facts, and control how much AI-driven content shapes thought.

YouTube’s gold rush has shifted. Success is now measured by scale and views, not skill or story. AI slop channels show the power and risk of this change, shaping what billions of people watch every day.