Filipino YouTuber reveals how he generates thousands of dollars by creating 'AI Slop’

YouTube is indeed a source to generate thousands of dollars; all one needs to do is create and post AI-generated videos, as revealed by Filipino YouTuber Mark Lawrence I Garilao.

Garilao’s revelations have unintentionally touched upon a contentious topic, which is that of ‘AI Slop.’ As per The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society at UofL, AI Slop is defined as the trend of creating AI-generated content with an emphasis on a clear formula and repetitive outputs, often leading to the creation of content with little or no original human-generated value.

In his recent interaction with NPR, Garilao revealed that with the help of AI, he is able to create a video in only a couple of hours. Additionally, the videos can garner enough viewership that he can monetise the content.

According to the report by NPR, Garilao said,

“The highest I made was in the month of May. I made $9,000 in just one month.”

Garilao, in his interaction with NPR, gave further details about his method of working. The 21-year-old computer science student shared that he makes use of a number of AI tools like ChatGPT and KlingAI. He also added that there are a number of AI-generated characters like Tralalero Tralala and Ballerina Cappuccina that he incorporates in his videos.

The debate around AI-generated Content on YouTube

According to the Filipino YouTuber Mark Lawrence I Garilao, he keeps the theme for his content simple. The videos that Garilao posts on his YouTube channel, titled FUNTASTIC YT, primarily include a kitten and his father in digitally generated environments, as per Dexerto. The channel boasts about 590K subscribers.

While iterating the simplicity of the process, Garilao, in his conversation with NPR, revealed,

“When I think of the story or what the dialogue would be, I would just — I would just sit there and think of a random one, which I find funny. That's it.”

According to the report by NPR, Garilao emphasized that new technologies like AI have empowered creators like him to engage in a process that is creative, innovative and lucrative.

However, the report by NPR also quotes experts who are critical of this new trend, which is emerging in content creation. As per NPR, Jason Koebler, the founder of media website 404Media, has pointed out that there is a strong relationship between content, quantity and algorithm.

According to Koebler, technologies like generative AI allow content creation in large quantities, an important factor that increases discoverability on the internet. As per NPR, Koebler argues that the logic of algorithms, rather than creativity, drives content creation with the rise of AI.

Apart from YouTube, AI Slop has flooded other social networking sites such as LinkedIn. The Guardian shared that a recent study of the web platform approximated that about half of long English-language content on LinkedIn is generated by AI.

Social media networks such as YouTube have already started taking steps to curb the flooding of repetitive and formulaic mass-generated content on their platforms, according to the report by NPR. However, the debate regarding the clear line that distinguishes original creative content from formula-based, technologically generated content has yet to be drawn clearly.