this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 4 days ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I instantly skip anything AI that attempts legitimacy. I’m irritated at the attempt to grab my attention with complete fakery.

I do occasionally watch some of the disturbing fever-dream clips simply because they are hallucinatory and seem to flow the way a human mind might grasp facets of something and amplify or distort the flow.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I am convinced Youtube and many other platforms are dying right now because instead of protecting their assets, they double down on AI slop that nobody cares about. Of course traffic will keep increasing first but that's mostly from bot accounts spamming garbage and not actual users consuming content and ads. Server cost will explode while ad revenue will shrink. The corporations behind it have vast resources and will take down the Internet with them but their end is slowly approaching.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

It's all about those next quarter results

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Sometimes I forget people watch YouTube on purpose. Other than music videos and the rare "how do I do this thing in this game?" I just don't use it

I feel like an alien sometimes. Reading books like some sort of lost time traveler.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You might be ahead of the curve. I still consume Youtube a lot but my experience is getting worse each and every month. It's a consistent downward spiral. It's just a matter of time until I realize "Oh, I haven't watched Youtube in weeks!" That's when I know. The people who make decisions at Youtube clearly do not even use their own website or app and there is no way to give feedback either. When they realize how bad it's gotten it will be too late to course correct. You can't win users back after they sobered up from your addictive dopamine machine because they stopped coming and the only traffic on your servers are bots.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 points 4 days ago

The people who make decisions at Youtube clearly do not even use their own website or app and there is no way to give feedback either.

Ed Zitron, famously verbose web blog guy, wrote a post about how he thinks most of these big businesses are run by idiots that are out of touch with both the product and the users.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

It's simple: they neither know nor care what the customer wants, barely know how their businesses function, barely know what their products do, and barely understand what their workers are doing, meaning that generative AI feels magical, because it does an impression of somebody doing a job, which is an accurate way of describing how most executives and middle managers operate.

[–] PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
  • Video essays
  • Podcasts
  • Stand-up comics
  • Sketch comics
  • Home improvement
  • Queer slice of life stuff

There is definitely content on there that I value still

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 points 4 days ago

This is only me describing my personal taste, but:

Almost all video essays and podcasts I would rather just read. It takes half the time. Include pictures, diagrams, and animations if needed. But I can read much faster and retain much better reading than listening to someone talk. Listening at double speed is faster, but can be uncomfortable.

I can imagine some value in some other niches, like you're saying, but the amount of slop and trash out there is too high for me, and the companies selling it are the worst.

Every time I see some parasocial YouTuber making That Face I just get irritated.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Who is watching this slop? Kids?

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yes and old people. I work with a guy who is 66 years old and I’ve seen him on multiple occasions watching YT videos of girls dancing that is AI.

[–] lightnegative@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Reminds me of the the sexydancingladies skit from Viva la Dirt League

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

You were watching an AI video of him watching YT videos of girls dancing? Talk about AI-ception!

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I legitimately want a setting on YouTube to block/remove AI content for my account, especially anything with an AI voice over. It's all fucking trash. Normally a company would want to introduce features that are desirable to customers, but it won't happen this time. Billionaires are all in on AI, and they don't want to lose money if/when it flops, so I'm sure they'll be no way for people to prevent AI being shoved down their throat

[–] lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

The “x” in the youtube browser tab or the “x” at the corner of the youtube app is the button that removes the slop

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

They started to auto translate comments based on your one(!) language setting, completely destroying nuance in the process. Oh, you're multilingual? TOO BAD! A lot of the translations don't even make sense. It's just word salad a lot of the time and they don't even give you an option to see the original comment, title or video description! And of course there is no way to give Youtube feedback about it. They're cooked. Their service is shit and the platform is suffocating from slop in more ways than I ever imagined. Like, I knew it would be bad but you even get bombarded with it when users aren't even involved.

[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't think YouTube believes I can speak both English and polish, because it translates titles into polish and completely ruins them, I've seen some that are so nonsensical I had to open the video in a browser (on my phone) to see what it means

[–] prex@aussie.zone 1 points 3 days ago

Two devices? More engagement! Bonus time!