Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, speaks during a panel for the Democracy Summit on March 30, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said reducing “AI slop” and detecting deepfakes were priorities for the Googlevideo site owned by 2026.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult to detect what is real and what is AI-generated,” Mohan wrote in his annual letter published Wednesday. “This is especially critical when it comes to deepfakes.”
With artificial intelligence penetrating every aspect of technology, Google has invested heavily in the development of infrastructure to support new and growing workloads while strengthening its Gemini models and adding AI capabilities to its professional and consumer product portfolio.
But as one of the leading sources of user-generated content on the Internet, YouTube is facing an explosion in the number of AI-created videos. The term AI slop refers to the mass of low-quality AI content that appears on social media platforms. Besides YouTube, companies such as Meta and TikTok rely on AI-powered recommendation systems that present personalized videos designed to keep users engaged for longer periods of time.
Mohan said the world was at an “inflection point,” where “the lines between creativity and technology are blurring.”
“To reduce the delivery of low-quality AI content, we are actively leveraging our established systems that have been very successful in combating spam and clickbait, and reducing the delivery of low-quality, repetitive content,” Mohan wrote.
He said YouTube clearly labels videos created by AI products and requires creators to disclose whether they produced edited content. The company’s systems also remove “harmful synthetic media” that violate its guidelines, Mohan wrote.
Keeping the platform attractive to all parties involved is critical to YouTube’s growth among users, creators, and advertisers.
In December, YouTube announced that it would expansion its “lookalike detection,” which flags when a creator’s face is used without their permission in deepfakes. The feature is rolling out to millions of creators as part of the YouTube Partner Program.
Mohan’s letter said the company will use AI as a tool and “not as a substitute”, adding that on average, more than 1 million YouTube channels were using its AI-creating technology daily as of December.
The company is expanding how creators can take advantage of AI, he said, including on YouTube’s short-form video offering called Shorts, which competes with TikTok and Instagram Reels.
“This year you will be able to create a short film using your own image, produce games with a simple text message and experiment with music,” he wrote.
Mohan described creators as “the new stars and the new studios”, and said YouTube creators are “buying studio-sized lots in Hollywood and beyond to launch new formats and produce beautifully produced, must-see TV shows.” The company also wants to offer creators new ways to earn money, from “branded purchases and deals to fan funding features like jewelry and giveaways.”
Another priority, Mohan said, is making YouTube “the best place for kids and teens” and said that this year the company plans to make it easier for parents to create new kids’ accounts and easily switch between them.
YouTube said as of September, it has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021. Earlier in the year, analysts at MoffettNathanson estimated that if it were a standalone company, YouTube would be worth between $475 billion and $550 billion.
WATCH: How Neal Mohan is leading YouTube by putting creators first
