Photo Credit: Zulfugar Karimov
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has outlined the company’s priorities for 2026, including managing so-called ‘AI slop’ and buoying creators pioneering new formats. The annual wrap follows a high-profile refusal by YouTube Music to share data with Billboard, effectively removing the platform from ongoing chart rankings.
In YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s annual letter to the community, released on Wednesday, the executive outlined ways the platform is working to combat so-called “AI slop.” He also hailed the rise of creator content and mentioned a forthcoming late-night “experience” to be hosted in New York City by YouTuber Julian Shapiro-Barnum.
“When creators hold the keys to their own production and distribution, the only limit is their imagination,” said Mohan, who acknowledged that maintaining a vibrant creator environment is crucial to fostering growth. And now, those efforts are centered on limiting the amount of “AI slop” on the Google-owned platform.
“The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka ‘AI slop,’” Mohan said. “As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time. Over the past 20 years, we’ve learned not to impose any preconceived notions on the creator ecosystem. Today, once-odd trends like ASMR and watching other people play video games are mainstream hits. But with this openness comes a responsibility to maintain the high-quality viewing experience that people want.”
Mohan explained that YouTube is “actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combating spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low-quality, repetitive content.”
It’s becoming increasingly harder to distinguish “real” human-created content from AI-generated content, but Mohan assures users that “we’re focused on ensuring AI serves the people who make YouTube great—the creators, partners, and billions of viewers.”
Regardless of how well YouTube’s clean-up efforts go, it won’t matter for Billboard’s chart rankings.
Late last year, YouTube Music CEO Lyor Cohen refused to share data with Billboard after expressing dissatisfaction with how free streams are weighted in Billboard’s charts. The resulting absence will clearly damage Billboard’s authority, though some in the industry are rejoicing at the expected absence of charting ‘slop hits’ powered by YouTube’s ‘slop factory’ — or at least a slowdown in the pace of AI-generated chart runs.
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Further, Mohan noted that YouTube labels content produced with its own AI tools and removes “any harmful synthetic media that violates our Community Guidelines.”
The company is also strengthening its identification methods and providing creators with tools to manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated content.
“Just as the synthesizer, Photoshop, and CGI revolutionized sound and visuals, AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in,” said Mohan. “On average, more than 1 million channels used our AI creation tools daily in December. This year you’ll be able to create a Short using your own likeness, produce games with a simple text prompt, and experiment with music. Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.”
