YouTube Chief Executive Officer Neal Mohan said combating the rise of low-quality “AI slop” on the platform will be a top priority in 2026, emphasizing the need to embrace artificial intelligence while better safeguarding the video app and its users.
As it becomes harder for users to distinguish real videos from AI-generated ones, “we’re focused on ensuring AI serves the people who make YouTube great — the creators, partners and billions of viewers looking for a deeper connection to the world around them,” Mohan wrote in a blog post highlighting the company’s plans for the year. Good-quality AI content will get YouTube’s support. “AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in” and “will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement,” he added.
Like other major tech and social media companies racing to integrate generative AI into their offerings, YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. is grappling with how to harness its power without putting off YouTube’s valuable advertisers, creators and ordinary users. In September, the company announced a slew of generative AI tools for video creators, as it remains in intense competition with rivals including ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram.
On average, more than 1 million YouTube channels used its AI creation tools daily in December, according to Mohan. Some of the tools are powered by Google DeepMind’s latest video-generation model, Veo 3 Fast.
Mohan said the platform will continue prioritizing its content creators, offering them “the most stable path to earn,” and pursuing its place as “the new TV.”
In addition, Mohan pledged greater transparency and protections from users employing AI to mislead and spam others, including by labeling content made using YouTube’s AI products and removing “any harmful synthetic media” that violate its rules. Mohan also touted new detection tools aimed at helping creators manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated material, including deepfakes, on the site.
AI-generated videos are changing the user experience not only on YouTube, but also on YouTube Kids, its youth-focused site. The growing volume of AI children’s content on both platforms, and the way some of it is designed to keep kids hooked, has raised concerns from parents and child development experts. Mohan said that “building the best place” for children and teens, and “empowering parents to protect their kids in the digital world, not from the digital world,” are also top YouTube priorities this year.
Bang writes for Bloomberg.