Recently on YouTube, videos claiming that broadcaster and former golf player Park Se-ri and actor Kim Seung-su announced their marriage have spread quickly.
As of the 27th, the video had surpassed 8.66 million views, and other content with similar claims also recorded hundreds of thousands of views.
But the video has been confirmed to be false, not about a real event. The problematic video claims the two became a couple after appearing together on a variety show, officially released their marriage through SBS News, and would hold a private wedding on Jan. 23 at an unspecified location in Seoul with only family and acquaintances invited.
Because it used captions and anchor lines similar to an actual newscast, it was consumed as if true, and comments like "Congratulations" and "They look good together" followed. The content was copied and redistributed across multiple platforms, spreading quickly.
False videos and low-quality content created using artificial intelligence (AI) have surged recently. The industry calls this "AI slop." Slop originally means filth or food scraps, but on social media platforms like YouTube it refers to low-quality, AI-generated content mass-produced for views and advertising revenue.
AI slop typically stitches together existing images, videos, and articles and packages them as a coherent story. Observers note that combining celebrities with a news format gives it a look close to reality, which can amplify its impact. The U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster classifies talking-cat videos, fake content that looks like real news, and shoddy AI-written books as examples of AI slop.
According to a report published in November last year by the U.S. video editing platform Kapwing, cumulative views for AI slop YouTube channels exceeded 63 billion. Among the top 15,000 YouTube channels worldwide, 278 channels post low-quality content made solely with AI, and their annual advertising revenue is estimated at about 169 billion won. Korea was cited as the largest consumer of AI slop content. Korea-based channels recorded 8.45 billion cumulative views, the most among the countries surveyed.
YouTube also recognizes the harm of AI slop as a key challenge. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said on the 27th on the company's official blog, "YouTube is a central hub of culture, and we are entering a new era of innovation where the lines between creativity and technology are blurring," adding, "We are strengthening our existing verification systems used against spam and clickbait and are actively working to curb the spread of low-quality, repetitive AI content."
Industry experts said, "Content production using AI technology is bound to increase, but content consumed without distinguishing fact from fiction can cause social confusion," adding, "AI slop that combines celebrities with a news format has significant reach and requires particular caution."