YouTube is looking to clamp down on content creators who generate revenue from “inauthentic” videos, including mass-produced and repetitive content.
The Alphabet-owned company has said it will update its YouTube Partner Program (YPP) monetisation policies on July 15, to require creators to upload “original” and “authentic” content. The updated monetisation policies will contain more detailed guidelines on what type of content can be monetised by creators.
The move has reportedly raised concerns among YouTubers about whether it could limit them from monetising content such as reaction videos or content that contains featured clips.
In response to these concerns, Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s Head of Editorial and Creator Liaison, has clarified that this won’t be the case. In a YouTube video posted on Tuesday, July 8, Ritchie said, “This is a minor update to YouTube’s long-standing YPP policies to help better identify when content is mass-produced or repetitive. This type of content has already been ineligible for monetisation for years and is content viewers often consider spam.
Recent advancements in AI text-to-video generators have led to a surge in low-quality, AI-generated content on platforms such as YouTube. This type of content has come to be known as AI slop. This also includes authentic videos or photos that have been overlaid with AI-generated voices. It remains to be seen how YouTube’s monetisation policies continue to evolve to address such content.
Google, on the other hand, is also integrating its Veo 3 model in YouTube Shorts to help creators leverage its most advanced AI video generator first introduced at the tech giant’s I/O 2025 developer conference a few months ago.
Earlier this year, a true crime murder series on YouTube that went viral, was later discovered to be completely AI-generated, according to a report by 404 Media. Previous reports have also revealed a rise in AI-generated phishing scams, with one of them even featuring the likeness of YouTube CEO Neal Mohan to dupe victims. Several AI music channels are found to have acquired millions of subscribers. AI-generated YouTube videos about news events, like the Diddy trial, have reportedly garnered millions of views as well.
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