YouTube is done paying AI slop farmers

Starting July 15, YouTube stops monetizing low-effort, mass-produced AI content. Not banning AI — just banning the lazy spam that’s choking the platform.
They say 92% of creators use AI in some way (no surprise), but only those putting in actual effort will get paid. If there’s no creativity or value? No check.
Why the shift? Because YouTube’s own incentives created a monster. Four top AI-spam channels racked up 800M views and 23M subs. Multiply that by thousands more, and yeah — users and advertisers had enough.
So now YouTube hits the weakest spot: money and reach. Slop season is over. Zuck, your move.