YouTube CEO Neal Mohan Says Creators Are “The New Stars And Studios”

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says creators are overtaking traditional Hollywood and should be considered “the new stars and studios.”

In his annual letter to the YouTube community, the top exec hailed the rise of creator content and also laid out ways that the Google-owned video giant is working to combat what he called “AI slop.”

YouTubers, he wrote, “are buying studio-sized lots in Hollywood and beyond to pioneer new formats and produce beautifully produced, must-see TV. The era of dismissing this content as simply “UGC” is long over. These are shows, built by creators who green-light themselves.”

He cited a forthcoming late-night “experience” to be hosted at various New York City locations by YouTuber Julian Shapiro-Barnum.

“When creators hold the keys to their own production and distribution, the only limit is their imagination,” Mohan added.

It has been a year of milestones for YouTube in terms of taking over turf long occupied by traditional TV. It drew a sizable global audience with its first live NFL stream last September and last month claimed rights to the Academy Awards after the award show wraps its decades-long run on ABC in 2029.

While the dynamism and freshness of creator fare helps explains its explosive growth, Mohan acknowledged that maintaining a viable environment around it on the platform is crucial. Today, that effort centers on limiting the amount of sketchy AI videos that circulate.

“The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka ‘AI slop,’” Mohan wrote. “As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time. Over the past 20 years, we’ve learned not to impose any preconceived notions on the creator ecosystem. Today, once-odd trends like ASMR and watching other people play video games are mainstream hits. But with this openness comes a responsibility to maintain the high quality viewing experience that people want.”

In order to combat low-quality AI fare, Mohan said YouTube is “actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content.”

YouTube also labels content produced with its own AI tools and also removes “any harmful synthetic media that violates our Community Guidelines,” Mohan noted. The company is also fortifying identification methods and giving creators tools to manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated content, he added.