Snapchat Joins Fight against ‘AI Slop’ Content

Snapchat has joined a growing list of platforms taking action against AI-generated content, announcing it will stop recommending fully AI-created videos on its popular Spotlight feed.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, said that it would no longer promote “wholly AI-generated videos” in favour of “authentic, human-made content”.

The move comes as platforms including YouTube, LinkedIn and Substack introduce measures to combat the rise of fake writing, images and videos created entirely through artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Such content, often described as “AI slop”, has become increasingly common online as generative AI technology has developed, allowing users to quickly produce everything from essays and social media posts to realistic videos.

However, Snapchat will not completely remove AI-generated content from its platform.

The company said AI “enhanced or edited” content will continue to appear in recommendations, as Snapchat itself offers users AI tools to modify their posts.

Snap acknowledged that fully AI-generated content is often “low-quality”, “repetitive”, and does not reflect what Snapchat users want to see.

Recent research into how people respond to AI-generated content suggests many users share similar concerns, with audiences becoming increasingly uncertain about whether content they see online is genuine.

A separate survey found that repeated exposure to AI-generated posts on social media can reduce people’s trust in the authenticity of online content.

Substack co-founder and chief executive Chris Best said:

“It’s getting harder to tell what’s real on the internet.”

He also warned that platforms encouraging AI-generated content without proper safeguards risk damaging the quality of online spaces:

“Platforms that reward fakeness will create a race to the bottom.”

LinkedIn has also introduced new measures to address AI-generated content, launching a reporting option that allows users to flag posts and comments they believe have been created using AI.

LinkedIn chief product officer Hari Srinivasan said tackling AI slop had become a major priority for the platform.

He said the platform had “blocked billions” of attempts to publish AI-generated comments over the past few months, adding:

“Every day we are now catching hundreds of thousands of automated comment attempts.”

Despite the changes, LinkedIn said it is not attempting to prevent users from using AI tools altogether. Those using AI to refine or improve their writing will not be affected by efforts aimed at removing low-quality automated content.

The platform has also removed an automated prompt that encouraged users creating posts to “enhance” them with AI, replacing it with a simpler proofreading tool.

YouTube has similarly updated its policies around AI-generated content, particularly regarding creator monetisation.

The Google-owned video platform recently changed its rules to prevent creators from earning money from videos it considers “inauthentic content”.

The update followed research that identified numerous YouTube channels producing entirely AI-generated videos, with some gaining millions of subscribers and generating significant revenue.

Under the revised rules, videos considered generic, repetitive or template-based will no longer be eligible for monetisation.

YouTube’s trust and safety chief Matt Halprin said AI tools can support creators but have also made it easier to produce large volumes of low-quality content.

Halprin said: “The same technology really enables great stuff.

“But it also enables stuff that’s kind of content farming, and that’s the stuff that we don’t want to have.”