Quick on their feed: What’s driving the ‘AI slop’ consumption surge in South Korea

SEOUL – South Korea has emerged as the world’s biggest consumer of low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence — notoriously known as “AI slop” — and experts say the phenomenon is being fuelled by the country’s unusually fast embrace of new technology, while it is shaped by a cultural instinct to stay ahead of societal shifts.

According to a report from video-editing platform Kapwing, the country now ranks number one worldwide in AI slop consumption. YouTube channels originating from South Korea have collectively amassed an estimated 8.45 billion views, outpacing Pakistan in second place (5.3 billion) and the United States in third (3.4 billion).

Industry watchers point to South Korea’s rapid AI adoption as a major driver behind the surge. In a recent AI diffusion report released by Microsoft, South Korea posted the steepest jump in generative AI usage among surveyed countries, climbing seven spots in the global rankings in just six months.

In the first half of 2025, 25.9 per cent of South Koreans said they had used generative AI. By the end of 2025, that figure had risen to 30.7 per cent, logging a 4.8 percentage-point increase, the largest growth recorded worldwide. The spike pushed South Korea’s global AI adoption ranking from 25th to 18th, marking it as the biggest mover in the second half of 2025.

Experts say the country’s appetite for AI, and by extension AI-generated content, may be rooted in a broader cultural instinct to adapt quickly.

“Since the financial crisis in 1997, Korean society has been forced to change again and again,” said artificial intelligence researcher Lim Joon-ho of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. “There’s a baseline mindset here that if you don’t adapt fast, you fall behind.”

Mr Lim contrasted the country against Japan’s slower-moving, tradition-oriented culture, noting that South Korea often operates with a heightened sense of urgency and that when social norms shift, individuals tend to feel swept up in that momentum.

Infrastructure also plays a major role, other experts say, giving South Korea an edge in both producing and consuming algorithm-friendly content at scale.

“It comes down to the environment that makes YouTube so easy to use,” said Korea University human-inspired AI research collaboration professor Billy Choi.

“When you factor in population size, it makes even more sense. Korea has exceptionally high literacy rates, widespread 5G smartphone use and top-tier network quality. In terms of density per square kilometre, few countries can compete.”

Whether AI slop poses a real threat, however, remains up for debate.

Mr Lim argued that the risks are difficult to ignore, warning that low-quality content can flood the ecosystem in overwhelming volume — choking out higher-value material and making it harder for audiences to find content that sparks new ideas.

He also flagged the potential for AI slop to be weaponised for scams and other criminal activity, especially since many uploads are generated and posted through automated workflows with little to no human oversight.

Rather than sweeping crackdowns, Mr Lim suggested that the better solution may be strengthening demand for quality content and building systems that elevate credible, high-effort work.

Dr Choi, meanwhile, downplayed feared long-term impacts, arguing that much of AI slop is consumed as disposable, meaning it is repetitive by nature and unlikely to have lasting cultural power.

Even so, the government is

stepping in and tightening the rules

.

On Jan 22, the Ministry of Science and ICT enforced the Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Creation of a Foundation for Trust, with a key provision requiring AI-generated content to be labelled.

Under the new rules, AI service providers must clearly mark AI-generated audio, images and videos with a watermark or written notice so users can easily tell when AI has been used. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK