The problem with TikTok’s AI slop is worse than you might think — and kids are noticing a lot
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 shows videos that sound oddly 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.
A study found that nearly 60% of the videos shown on the 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 makes to new users before the algorithm starts personalizing their feed. And if that sounds concerning, the findings about children’s content are hard to ignore.
Algorithm junk food time
TikTok’s recommendation engine is built 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 looks like, the researchers created a new account and examined the first 500 videos offered on the For You page. The results were surprising: 294 of those videos were classified as AI slop. That means a new user is more likely to encounter AI-generated garbage than human-generated content before TikTok has any meaningful data about their preferences.
Perhaps more telling is how TikTok compares to other platforms. Kapwing previously performed a similar experiment on YouTube Shorts and found the clutter generated by the AI to be very small. TikTok wasn’t too bad – it was too bad. At this point, AI content isn’t just sneaking onto the platform. It becomes part of the default beauty of the platform. And that may be the real story here. For many users, especially younger ones, AI-generated videos are no longer an occasional oddity. They have become familiar.
Sesame Street meets a strange valley
The most alarming section of the report focuses on content directed at children. The researchers found that more than half of the videos in the children’s section of TikTok qualifies as AI-generated “slop”. One hashtag in particular, #CartoonKids, was almost completely overtaken by AI-generated content, with a few seemingly human-made videos. Anyone who has come across these videos will immediately recognize the formula – ordinary cartoon characters appear in strange situations, educational lessons are full of mistakes, characters speak in uncontrollable artificial voices, animations change and morph in absurd ways.
The content is often similar to children’s programs at first glance, but it falls apart when you pay attention. That’s what makes it so worrying. Young children are not equipped to distinguish between high-quality educational content and AI-generated simulations that confidently present incorrect information. A math lesson that makes numbers wrong may seem silly to an adult, but a preschooler doesn’t have the same context. The Internet has always had questionable content for children. What has changed is the scale. Generative AI enables the creation of endless video streams at a speed that no human creator can match. And TikTok’s recommendation system seems more than willing to spread it.
The problem extends beyond children’s content, too. The study found that educational, scientific, health, and history videos are among the categories most affected by AI slop. That’s especially unfortunate because these are topics where accuracy is very important. A poorly produced comedy skit is easy enough to scroll past. A history lesson full of fictional information or a health video that presents misleading advice is a completely different story. To be fair, not all creators using AI produce rubbish. Some creators are experimenting with AI-generated presenters and graphics to make educational topics more engaging. In the best cases, AI serves as a tool that supports the work of the creator rather than replacing it. But the report highlights a growing reality across social media: incentives often reward volume over quality. If a creator is able to produce a large number of videos in the same amount of time as we once did, the platforms are flooded with content that looks technical but offers very little.
TikTok seems to know that users are getting tired of it. The company has introduced controls that allow users to reduce the amount of AI-generated content they see and invest in AI learning programs. However, research shows that those efforts may struggle to keep up with the floods. Ironically, social media became popular because it offers something unique to humanity: intelligence, humanity, technology and communication. AI can simulate all those things in an amazing way. But simulation is not the same as reality. When almost six out of ten videos seen by a new user are produced with AI, 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 the generation of kids who are growing up with this feed, that’s more news than ever.
