YouTube has clarified its rules on monetisation to stop low-quality AI content from earning revenue.
The platform now divides “inauthentic content” into three specific groups that are ineligible for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). This update adds detail to policies introduced last year, which already blocked mass-produced or repetitive material.
The three banned categories
The new guidelines split inauthentic content into generic, repetitive, or template-based videos; off-putting or distressing material; and content where AI personas discuss sensitive topics like health or finance.
YouTube wants to distinguish between useful AI tools and content farming. Matt Halprin, the trust and safety chief, told a Creator Insider video that the company aims to reduce low-quality videos made solely for profit.
“AI can actually allow people to make a lot of videos,” Halprin said. “Sometimes those videos are great, and it really enhances creativity. And you can create a higher volume of high-quality content that we want to encourage and have in YPP.”
However, he noted the same tools enable quick production of generic clips lacking a narrative arc. “So 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 in YPP,” Halprin added.
Specific examples of prohibited content
The first category covers repetitive material made with AI, computer-generated imagery, or templates with little variation. Tutorial videos could also fall under this rule if they simply reproduce content already prevalent on the platform.
The second category targets “off-putting” content designed to be distressing or emotionally manipulative to chase views. This includes videos showing an animal in distress before a rescue. Halprin stated viewers find this off-putting and do not want to return to those channels.
Any channel dedicated to this type of content will be removed from YPP, regardless of whether the material is AI-generated.
The third bucket addresses AI personas, which are representations of real people made with software. YouTube does not want to incentivise creators using these personas to discuss sensitive topics such as finance, legal issues, healthcare, and medical issues.
Channels with too much of any of these three types of content will lose monetisation. The policy clarifications launched on 16 July and apply to all YouTube Partner Program members.
What it means
Creators using AI must now ensure their output has a clear narrative and originality. Channels relying on repetitive templates or distressing imagery for views will no longer earn ad revenue. Using AI to impersonate people for advice on finance or health is now explicitly blocked.
