The drama channel landscape on YouTube has evolved through the platform’s two-decade journey, yet it remains reliant on the traditional marketing strategy: clickbait. Generative AI technologies are reintroducing this approach in notable and alarming fashions. A multitude of channels have been racking up views and revenue using AI-produced thumbnails and fabricated quotes purportedly from the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial, utilizing celebrity likenesses and sensational language to draw in viewers. Initially reported by the Indicator and later featured by the Guardian, roughly 900 videos across 26 channels have garnered close to 70 million views over the past year, in spite of Big Tech’s attempts to address deepfakes and misinformation.
Many channels dishing out “Diddy slop” utilize AI-generated thumbnails and narration to misleadingly associate celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Justin Bieber, Joe Rogan, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with the trial’s infamous sexual abuse allegations. Most videos recycle genuine trial images or local news reporting, with only a handful venturing into purely deepfaked footage, as the report highlighted. Faceless channels concentrating on AI-generated clickbait content have also permeated TikTok, evading the automatic moderation systems of both platforms and possibly complicating the already tangled information landscape rife with misinformation and conspiracy theories.
In spite of YouTube’s regulations aimed at stopping such videos from being monetized, they have proven to be profitable. “If you were to ask, ‘Hey, how can I make $50,000 as quickly as possible?’ the first answer would probably be like drug dealing, but the second would likely be launching a Diddy channel,” Wanner Aarts, a creator of AI-generated content on YouTube, remarked to the Guardian. Following the Indicator’s findings, YouTube eliminated 16 channels and demoted the monetization of several others.
The platform has faced challenges in addressing the growing prevalence of overtly AI-generated visuals and videos within its content suggestions and advertising space. In 2024, the site removed more than 1,000 AI-generated scam videos promoting products by using celebrity likenesses. AI-generated thumbnails have proliferated, most recently resulting in backlash against YouTube star Mr.Beast, who rolled out and then swiftly pulled back a generative AI tool for crafting eye-catching thumbnails.
In summary, YouTube and its parent company, Alphabet, have made substantial investments in generative AI for their own applications, including a new YouTube Shorts video generator powered by Google DeepMind’s Veo 2 and a merged AI-driven search and recommendation tool for Premium subscribers.