About 59% of TikTok videos served by the new For You feed account are AI slop, according to a report from Kapwing, a video creation tools company. That’s nearly three times the amount Kapwing earned on YouTube.
The company manually reviewed more than 10,000 TikTok videos in 20 categories and conducted a separate test for the new account, counting AI-generated content from the first 500 videos for You.
How TikTok compares to YouTube
Kapwing did a similar test for a new account on YouTube and found that 104 of the first 500 shorts, or 21%, were AIs. On TikTok, 294 of your 500 videos hit that limit.
I covered Kapwing’s YouTube findings and the broader AI problem in March. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan had also named the AI slop as a problem with the quality of the content the company was building recognition systems for.
By November, TikTok had already labeled 1.3 billion videos as AI-generated, according to the report.
Children’s Content Has a Very High Focus
Of the 2,000 videos Kapwing reviewed in TikTok’s Kids section, 57% were AI slop. That was the highest level of any category in the analysis.
The high-level marker was #kids cartoonswhere 97 out of 100 featured videos are made with AI. The tags are similar #animated again #child’s song both reached 83%, too #forks entered with 79%.
Which Sections Are Most Affected
After Children, the next highest rates of AI were in Science and Education (35%), Health (33%), and History (33%). All three are categories where visuals and voice narration make up the bulk of the content.
On the other hand, categories where the presence of a camera or a visual display were moderate had the lowest ratings. Fashion came in at 1.3%, Music at 1.5%, and Fitness at 1.6%.
How Kapwing Collects Data
The report’s approach began with a list of 20 popular TikTok categories and at least three of the most popular tags in each. Kapwing’s team then manually reviews the videos featured on each tag page, counts AI slop and non-AI slop content and aggregates the results into categories. That generated a category rate percentage from 10,742 videos.
In a new user study, the team created a new TikTok account and scrolled through 500 DIY videos, recording which ones were AI slop. The 59% figure comes from that single account test.
The report defines AI slop as videos with obvious AI-generated graphics, and low-quality integration using AI-generated clear text and voices.
To be clear, Kapwing is a video editing and creation platform. The company has a commercial interest in bridging the gap between human-generated content and AI production.
Why This Matters
Brands producing TikTok content are entering a feed where automated content may overtake human-made videos for new users. Content specifically for children, the focus is high.
TikTok has added user controls for AI content, but data suggests that what new users automatically see is still heavily dependent on AI-generated videos.
Looking Forward
Kapwing has now published AI slop reports for both YouTube and TikTok.
YouTube has responded to its slow-down problem with recognition systems and monetization policy changes. TikTok has added user-facing controls. Whether that intervention changes what new users see has yet to be measured.
Featured Image: FotoField/Shutterstock
