YouTube Chief Executive Officer Neal Mohan named a "war on artificial intelligence (AI) slop" as his top priority for this year. With AI slop—low-quality content generated by AI—surging and drawing criticism that viewing experiences on YouTube are deteriorating, the company is moving to devise countermeasures.
Mohan stated accordingly on the 22nd through "YouTube's top priorities for 2026," posted on YouTube's official blog. He said, "YouTube is a central hub of culture, and as we move into 2026, we are entering a new era of innovation where the lines between creativity and technology are blurring," adding, "At such an inflection point, bold challenges are necessary."
Mohan signaled he intends to win this year's "war on AI slop." "It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish AI-generated content from reality, and this phenomenon is especially pronounced in deepfakes," he said, adding, "Concerns over 'AI slop' in particular are also growing."
According to a report recently published by U.S. video editing platform Kapwing, cumulative views on AI slop YouTube channels have surpassed 6.3 billion. Among the top 15,000 YouTube channels worldwide, 278 channels post low-quality content produced solely by AI, and their annual advertising revenue is estimated at about 169 billion won.
As AI slop—also called AI garbage—floods the space, concerns are mounting that "digital pollution" is worsening, including declining platform trust, lower content quality, and disruption of the ecosystem.
In particular, Korea is the country that watches the most AI slop in the world. An analysis Kapwing conducted in Nov. last year of the top 100 popular YouTube channels by country found that cumulative views for Korea-based AI slop channels reached 8.45 billion, the most among those surveyed. That figure far exceeds second-place Pakistan (5.3 billion) and third-place the United States (3.4 billion).
Mohan said, "As an open platform, YouTube allows a wide range of free expression, but such openness also comes with a responsibility to maintain a high quality bar," adding, "YouTube will strengthen its proven systems that have countered spam and clickbait and will actively work to curb the spread of low-quality, repetitive AI content."
YouTube said it will fully support creators in actively using AI for high-quality content production this year while ensuring thorough management of AI slop. Mohan said, "For years, AI has underpinned YouTube's most important innovations, from recommending what users should watch next to blocking content that violates operational policies."
He said, "In Dec. last year, more than 6 million viewers per day watched auto-dubbed videos for at least 10 minutes, and on average more than 1 million channels used YouTube's AI creation tools every day," adding, "Before long, we will expand these features so users can create Shorts using their own likeness, make games with simple text prompts, and even experiment with music."