TikTok has spent years perfecting the art of knowing exactly what you want to watch next. Open the app, scroll a few times, and suddenly it’s serving videos that feel uncannily tailored to your interests. But what happens before TikTok learns who you are? According to new research from video editing platform Kapwing, the answer is increasingly AI slop.
The study found that nearly 60% of the videos shown to a brand-new TikTok account were low-quality AI-generated content. That’s not a niche problem buried in obscure corners of the platform. It’s the first impression TikTok is making on new users before the algorithm even begins personalizing their feed. And if that sounds concerning, the findings around children’s content are even harder to ignore.
The algorithm’s junk-food era
TikTok’s recommendation engine is designed to adapt quickly. The platform looks at everything from likes and follows to watch time and scrolling habits before deciding what to show you next. To understand what an untouched TikTok experience looks like, researchers created a fresh account and examined the first 500 videos served on the For You page. The results were startling: 294 of those videos were classified as AI slop. That means a new user is more likely to encounter AI-generated junk than human-created content before TikTok has any meaningful data about their preferences.
Perhaps even more telling is how TikTok compares to other platforms. Kapwing previously ran a similar experiment on YouTube Shorts and found substantially less AI-generated clutter. TikTok wasn’t just worse — it was dramatically worse. At this point, AI content isn’t merely sneaking into the platform. It’s becoming part of the platform’s default aesthetic. And that may be the real story here. For many users, especially younger ones, AI-generated videos aren’t an occasional oddity anymore. They’re becoming normal.
The rapid rise of generative AI tools has lowered the barrier to content creation dramatically. Tools like Runway, Pika, and even open-source models allow anyone to produce video content with minimal effort. On TikTok, where virality depends on volume and speed, this has created a perfect storm. Creators can churn out dozens of AI-generated clips in the time it once took to produce a single human-made video. The platform’s reward system, which prioritizes watch time and engagement, often fails to distinguish between a thoughtfully crafted piece and one that is merely superficially engaging. As a result, AI slop proliferates.
The state of children’s content
The most alarming section of the report focuses on content aimed at children. Researchers found that more than half of the videos in TikTok’s Kids category qualified as AI-generated “slop.” One hashtag in particular, CartoonKids, was almost completely overtaken by AI-generated material, with only a handful of videos appearing to be made by humans. Anyone who has stumbled across these videos will recognize the formula immediately — familiar cartoon characters appear in bizarre scenarios, educational lessons are riddled with mistakes, characters speak with unsettling synthetic voices, animations shift and morph in ways that don’t quite make sense.
The content often resembles children’s programming at first glance, but falls apart the moment you pay attention. That’s what makes it troubling. Young children aren’t equipped to distinguish between high-quality educational content and an AI-generated imitation that confidently presents incorrect information. A counting lesson that gets the numbers wrong may seem ridiculous to an adult, but a preschooler doesn’t have the same context. The internet has always had questionable content for kids. What’s changed is the scale. Generative AI enables the creation of endless streams of videos at a pace no human creator could ever match. And TikTok’s recommendation system appears more than willing to distribute them.
Educational experts have long warned about the impact of low-quality screen time on child development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 18 months avoid screen media other than video chatting, and that older children consume only high-quality, age-appropriate content. AI-generated slop subverts these guidelines by flooding the platform with content that looks educational but is often wrong or nonsensical. For example, a video purporting to teach the alphabet might show a letter with an incorrect associated image, or a science video might present false facts about animals. Over time, such exposure could shape a child’s understanding in harmful ways.
Beyond children: other vulnerable categories
The problem extends beyond children’s content, too. The study found that educational, science, health, and history videos were among the categories most heavily affected by AI slop. That’s particularly unfortunate because these are precisely the topics where accuracy matters most. A poorly generated comedy skit is easy enough to scroll past. A history lesson filled with fabricated details or a health video presenting misleading advice is a different story altogether.
Take health content as an example. During the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok became a major source of information for millions of users, but it also spread dangerous misinformation. Now with AI, the problem is magnified. An AI-generated video might confidently recommend a dangerous home remedy or misstate the side effects of a medication. Because these videos often use a polished, authoritative presentation style—featuring a synthetic narrator or animated diagrams—viewers may trust them without question. The combination of convincing visuals and false information is a powerful and worrying mix.
Similarly, history content on TikTok has seen a surge of AI-generated “fact” videos that invent events or misattribute quotes. For instance, a viral AI video might claim a famous historical figure said something they never did, complete with a deepfake-like voice clone. Younger users, who may not have the historical knowledge to spot inaccuracies, can easily absorb these falsehoods as truth. The platform’s design, which encourages rapid scrolling and short attention spans, further reduces the likelihood of critical evaluation.
TikTok’s response and the broader challenge
To be fair, not every creator using AI is producing garbage. Some creators are experimenting with AI-generated presenters and visuals to make educational topics more engaging. In the best cases, AI functions as a tool that supports the creator’s work rather than replacing it. But the report highlights a growing reality across social media: the incentives often reward volume over quality. If a creator can generate dozens of videos in the time it once took to make one, platforms become flooded with content that is technically watchable but offers very little substance.
TikTok seems aware that users are growing tired of it. The company has introduced controls that allow users to reduce the amount of AI-generated content they see and has invested in AI literacy initiatives. Yet the research suggests those efforts may be struggling to keep pace with the flood. The irony is that social media became popular because it offered something distinctly human: creativity, personality, expertise, and connection. AI can imitate all of those things surprisingly well. But imitation isn’t the same as authenticity. When nearly six out of every ten videos a new user sees are AI-generated, the question is no longer whether AI slop exists on TikTok. The question is whether it has become a defining feature of the platform. And for a generation of children growing up with these feeds, that answer matters more than ever.
The Kapwing study is just one snapshot, but it aligns with broader trends observed by researchers and journalists. In 2023, Stanford Internet Observatory reported a rise in AI-generated spam accounts on social media. In 2024, multiple investigations found that Facebook and Instagram were also struggling with AI-generated images and videos that often went viral before being flagged. TikTok, however, appears to be particularly susceptible due to its algorithm’s heavy reliance on engagement metrics over content quality. The platform’s design encourages rapid consumption, which benefits AI-generated content that is optimized for short attention spans but lacks depth.
Moreover, the economics of content creation play a role. TikTok’s Creator Fund and other monetization programs reward views, not quality. This incentivizes creators to produce as much content as possible, often using automated tools. AI slop is a natural outcome of these incentives. While some platforms have taken steps to demonetize low-quality AI content, TikTok has been slower to act. The company has updated its community guidelines to prohibit “deceptive” AI content, but enforcement remains inconsistent. Many AI-generated videos that are clearly labeled as such still appear in feeds because they generate high engagement.
For users, the experience of scrolling through an AI-saturated feed can be disorienting. The uncanny valley effect—where something looks almost but not quite human—creates a sense of unease. Over time, this may erode trust in the platform altogether. If every video could be fake, why pay attention? That’s a dangerous trajectory for a company that relies on user attention for its revenue. The rise of AI slop also threatens the ecosystem of human creators who built TikTok’s cultural relevance. Many small creators report that their organic reach has declined as AI-generated content floods the algorithm. In a world where a bot can produce 100 videos a day, a human making one high-quality video per week struggles to compete.
As AI technology continues to improve, the distinction between human-made and AI-generated content will blur further. TikTok and other platforms face a critical choice: continue to prioritize volume and engagement, or invest in systems that surface authentic, high-quality content. The latter requires not just better moderation but also a fundamental redesign of recommendation algorithms to value sources and accuracy. Until then, the default experience for new users—especially children—will remain a sea of AI slop, with all the risks that entails.
Source: Digital Trends News