YouTube is tightening its monetization policies to address the growing amount of AI-generated "unreal" content. The company will update its YouTube Partner Program (YPP) monetization policy on July 15th, aiming to more clearly define which content meets monetization criteria and which does not. This move comes as AI technology has made mass production and repetitive content increasingly easy.
YouTube has long required creators to upload "original" and "authentic" content, and the upcoming policy update will further clarify the definition of "unreal" content. Although the exact wording has not been released, existing pages in the YouTube Help documentation already explain this.
Some creators are concerned that the new policy may affect the profitability of reaction videos or edited videos. However, Rene Ritchie, YouTube's editor and creator relations manager, stated in a video update that this update is just a "small update" to YouTube's long-standing YPP policy, mainly aimed at better identifying mass-produced or repetitive content. He emphasized that such content has long failed to meet monetization criteria because audiences generally consider them to be spam.
Ritchie did not mention that the widespread use of AI technology has significantly lowered the barriers to creating such content. Today, YouTube is flooded with large amounts of low-quality media and content known as "AI spam." This includes using text-to-video tools to overlay AI voiceovers on photos, video clips, or reorganized content, as well as AI-generated music channels and fake news event videos, even entire crime series completely generated by AI. For example, the image of YouTube CEO Neal Mohan was also used in an AI-generated phishing scam. Although YouTube provides tools for reporting deepfake videos, the proliferation of AI spam content has become undeniable.
Although YouTube may downplay this policy update as a "minor" adjustment or clarification, allowing such content to thrive and letting its creators profit could ultimately harm YouTube's reputation and value. Therefore, establishing clear policies to ban AI spam content creators on a large scale from the YPP has become a key measure for YouTube to maintain the platform's ecosystem.