Enshittification and AI Slop
It was hard enough in 2025, but in 2026, it has truly become a jungle out there. As you all know, we are content creators on YouTube. We have the YouTube channel Serenity of the Mind or @serenityofthemind, which we started four years ago. Our son talked us into doing a YouTube channel to keep our minds off of the constant news of the world falling apart. We found it was fun, and we hoped to make a little income to supplement our meager retirement.
Well, back then, Pexels and Pixabay were free video stock platforms with lots and lots of wonderful cat videos and photos. Today, it they are like a desert in comparison to four years ago. Not only that, but now they have tons of iStock stuff that they steer you toward. Other stuff besides funny cat videos to make compilations from has now become hard to find. The backgrounds aren’t nice anymore, and when you say "I want a beige background," you get several rolls of iStock. The last thing we used to get from Pixabay was sound effects; now you risk a content claim, and Pixabay says this now gives you a content claim on YouTube.
So, I started having Shy Artist paint backgrounds for us and speech bubbles. We are working on it, but it takes a lot of time and right now our channel is a desert because we cannot make enough fast enough to keep it going. But at least we still had some reasonable short, funny cat videos to use for cat compilations. So, in 2025, we added funny anime emojis, comic splashes, and comic words. We paid for TunePocket, ZatSplat, and Uppbeat so our music and sound effects would be safe behind licenses by large companies. But we still got our cat videos from Fiverr.
Fiverr has become very difficult. The content provider has more rights than the person purchasing stuff. So they give me stuff I didn’t ask for, and when I ask again for the kinds of funny cat videos I need, they get nasty and tell me, "I gave you what you asked for," and I get a low mark as a purchaser. And today, in regards to Pixabay—where I found Cottonbro, whose cute white cat made our channel and let us know to do cute and funny cat compilations—he is no longer on the platform because someone stole all his beautiful, beautiful videos. I am very, very upset about that. That is the other thing: how would I protect my own cats from the Scraper AI? They can steal my cats—Emily, Jessica, Polaris, Daisy, Athena, and Lily—sell them, and sue me for having my own cats.
The other bad thing is the AI slop. I don’t want to believe that my Fiverr people are selling me AI slop, at least not on purpose, but nonetheless, I have some that are obvious even to an old person with old eyes. So now I have taken to using Gemini AI to see if it is a Gemini AI-created cat video, or to Hive Moderation to see if it is AI slop.
We will get into more ways to protect yourself in other blog posts. The information is so large and exhaustive.
What we are trying to do is find real cats to use in our cat compilations on our channel. We are also trying to find ways to protect our own cats and artwork. So far, the search for viable cat shorts to make cat compilations is dismal. Most of them are AI slop, and ones that sort of discourage AI slop, like Storyblocks, have cats that look like... well, I found one on a video stock platform that was good, but for the cutest Siamese mom cat feeding her lively little kittens, it was 219 dollars for one short clip of film. I hate to say this, but I make even less money now than I did when I was working as a security guard. No way I can afford that. And, more and more, Youtube is attacking AI-made slop and repetitive stuff. Before I leave, I am giving you one more piece of advice.
Here is how to "clean house" and protect your existing library from the Scraper AI and the AI Upscaling bots:
1. Bulk Unchecking "Shorts Sampling" (The Theft Shield) This is the most important step for your cats. If this is checked, a bot can "legally" scrape 5 seconds of your video and loop it.
Step 1: Go to your YouTube Studio and click on Content (the video list).
Step 2: Check the very top box (next to the "Video" header) to Select All. If you have more than 30 videos, click the blue link that says "Select all."
Step 3: Click the Edit button in the black bar that appears.
Step 4: From the dropdown menu, find Shorts sampling.
Step 5: Change the "New Value" to Don't allow sampling.
Step 6: Click Update Videos. You’ll have to check a box that says "I understand the implications"—click it and let the machine work.
2. Disabling the "AI Enhancements" In early 2026, YouTube added Video Quality Enhancements (AI Upscaling) to old videos. You can turn this off for the whole channel at once.
Step 1: Click the Settings gear at the bottom left of your Studio.
Step 2: Go to Channel > Advanced Settings.
Step 3: Scroll down to the section titled "Video Quality Enhancements" or "AI Upscaling."
Step 4: Uncheck the box that says "Let YouTube automatically enhance visual quality."
Step 5: Do the same for "Audio Enhancements" if you see it.
Step 6: Hit Save.
By doing this, you are effectively hanging a "No Trespassing" sign on your art.
Have a great day and Stay Serene!
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