Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Bring back authenticity: YouTube cracks down on AI-generated content
The shift comes just two years after the platform revised the eligibility criteria for content creators to monetise their accounts, slashing the number of required subscribers by half to 500.
Content creators banking on YouTube as a primary platform in Kenya and across the world are staring at diminished returns as the platform moves to crack the whip on inauthentic, copied, and machine-generated videos.
Last week, the popular Google-owned video-sharing platform announced that starting July 15, all imitative and low-effort content fed into the channel will be demonetised, in what is set to deal a blow to many content creators who rely on new-age tech-powered automation capabilities to churn out videos in mass volumes.
“In order to monetise as part of the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP), YouTube has always required creators to upload original and authentic content,” wrote the platform in a policy update.
“On July 15, 2025, YouTube is updating our guidelines to better identify mass-produced and repetitious content. This update better reflects what ‘inauthentic’ content looks like today.”
But what does this really mean for creators?
According to digital intelligence analyst Nyandia Gachago, the message to the creator industry is simple; use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist, not to replace your voice.
She says that the platform is signaling to creators that AI-churned, mass-produced content is not sustainable and that human creativity, storytelling, and value delivery are still king.
“YouTube is drawing a bold line; quality over quantity. Intent over automation. It is not how fast you can publish, it’s about what you’re publishing and why,” she observes.
“Repurposing content is fine, but replication is not. Synthetic narrators might save you time, but if they cost you originality, you’re losing the long game,” she adds.
Ms Gachago laments that AI and low-effort automations have flooded YouTube with repetitive and meaningless content, drowning out quality creators and cluttering discovery which leaves viewers frustrated and erodes their trust.
“Clickbait, robotic narrators, and slideshows with little to no soul are driving away audiences. YouTube wants to preserve viewer engagement and satisfaction – which is directly tied to advertising revenue and brand trust,” she notes.
Digital marketing specialist Janet Machuka terms the move a win for creators seeking to humanise content in a world that’s increasingly machine-run, noting that authenticity still remains desirable by audiences.
“I’m genuinely impressed that YouTube is starting to give more value to creators who don’t rely solely on AI especially when it comes to voice. I’m not saying this as a critic of AI but as a creative who understands what it means to put your voice, personality, and energy into your work,” she says.
“When creators pour in all their tone, flaws, quirks, breath into videos, it creates connection. Machines cannot mimic that, not yet. So, I respect YouTube’s direction. If you’re going to pay creators, it makes sense to reward the ones who aren’t just pushing out polished outputs, but those who are showing up fully, genuinely, and humanly,” she adds.
Ms Machuka, however, notes that the shift could be a bit chaotic for Google especially because it is one of AI’s biggest champions, but asserts that it is a necessary alteration in the operating model.
The shift comes just two years after the platform revised the eligibility criteria for content creators to monetise their accounts, slashing the number of required subscribers by half to 500.
In the retired plan, a creator also needed to have netted either 4,000 watched hours in the preceding year or 10 million shorts views in the preceding 90 days to qualify for the YPP.
The current terms now require a minimum of three public uploads in the preceding 90 days and either 3,000 watch hours in the just-ending year or three million shorts views in the preceding 90 days.
For one to join the monetisation programme, they are required to have an active AdSense account that is linked to the channel or set up in the YouTube Studio when applying.
In Kenya, the number of YouTube channels making Sh100,000 or more in revenue rose by over 25 percent year-on-year as of December 2022, while only 20 percent of the channels had more than a million subscribers.
