523
More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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I’ve stopped watching YouTube shorts because of this, and the removal of the downvote count makes it harder to tell.
0 people liked the removal of the dislike button.
Wdym
No one disliked the removal of the dislike button, how would they if it's removed
Why would you ever watch shorts in the first place? First thing I did when they appeared was make a ublock filter to hide them.
Considering a lot of the full YouTube videos are full of padding, taking over ten minutes to get to the point, I can understand why the shorts would have appeal.
Problem is one way or another people are being incentivized to target a specific runtime regardless of whether they have the material to fit.
"Stay tuned for part 2"
I just skip those. There's almost always a better one that was easy to find.
100% this I do everything I can to ignore shorts
I will never pay for youtube while the downvote count is gone. Absolute anti consumer bullshit.
I do use the add-on to bring them back, but fuck those assholes for doing this.
And hiding the date the video is from, Youtube is getting worse.
Am I the only one who sticks to subscriptions? It feels like everyone is just consuming whatever the algorithm feeds them
Can't find new content just sticking to subscriptions unfortunately
You can find new content by asking for channel recommendations on lemmy.
Fuck the algorithms, talk to real people. That's how it used to work.
True, but you eventually reach a point where your subscriptions fill your feed with more videos than you know what to do with.
I do branch out occasionally and find new channels to subscribe to, either on youtube or through other sources. Crossovers between channels are also helpful.
Not when I'm listening to videos 4 hours a day at work, not really
But you can search for subjects of interest, or ask interesting friends for their recommendations.
You're not the only one, but you are a tiny minority.
Technology Connections did a really good video on this topic specifically, and while you can't extrapolate his numbers to every channel, seeing that less than 5% of all your views come from people using the subscriptions feed is very telling about how most users operate on platforms like YouTube.
Nobody wants to build their feed anymore. They want an AI/algorithm to do the legwork for them. This is ingrained in modern culture at this point. All the people I know who use any kind of social media site tell me that they just scroll through their home feed and only like stuff or follow creators to improve their home feed recommendations, not to create a dedicated follow feed.