Adavia Davis, 22, left Mississippi State University in 2020 and has since built a lucrative content-creation business specializing in what is known as “slop”—high-volume, AI-generated background videos that capture attention economically but are rarely meant to be actively watched or shared. His most popular videos, Davis told Fortune, are often played while viewers are asleep. Operating five active YouTube channels—and managing a larger portfolio that includes Minecraft content for kids, funny-animal compilations, prank videos, anime edits, Bollywood clips, and celebrity gossip—Davis’s most profitable venture is a “Boring History” channel featuring six-hour narrated documentaries designed to help people sleep. These channels are part of the “faceless” content trend, characterized by scalable, replicable videos mostly produced using artificial intelligence. Davis’s partner, Eddie Eizner, created TubeGen, proprietary software that automates nearly every production step. Scripts and visuals are generated via Claude AI, narration provided by ElevenLabs’ British voice, and videos can last up to six hours, costing about $60 to produce from start to finish. Davis’s network reportedly earns between $40, 000 and $60, 000 monthly, with operating expenses around $6, 500, yielding exceptional profit margins of 85% to 89%. Verified social media analytics and AdSense payout records reviewed by Fortune show that individual channels generate tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly, adding up to roughly $700, 000 in annual gross revenue. Davis spoke about his evolving career, which began as a college student and why he chose to forgo completing college. Growing up during YouTube’s golden age, Davis spent six hours daily creating Minecraft and Fortnite videos at age 10. He nostalgically recalls a time when creators were motivated by passion rather than profit. However, with AI advancements like ChatGPT emerging in 2022, Davis noticed a shift toward large content farms overtaking personal brands. His early adoption of AI content creation helped him keep pace amid competition uploading at scale and speed. After selling his first channel to a brand and buying a Tesla Model 3 with his savings, he realized balancing college and content creation was untenable and left school. Davis critiques today’s platforms as focused on capturing attention for advertisers, describing the system as psychologically manipulative and destructive, designed to make audiences easier to monetize. He emphasizes the need to understand and even teach the “attention economy, ” offering an online course that frames social media as a social science. Studies suggest AI-generated “slop” now accounts for over 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users, with channels of this type amassing 63 billion views, 221 million subscribers, and generating $117 million annually in ad revenue.

Although Davis’s channels are smaller in scale—ranging from 400, 000 to just over 1 million subscribers—they average about 2 million views daily. He credits his success to mastering viewer psychology and strategically optimizing watch time, YouTube’s critical metric. His tactics include meticulously crafting video hooks and employing subtle “tricks” like brief flashes of spiders or intentional typos to increase viewer engagement and watch time. Despite an early advantage, Davis faces mounting competition as AI tools improve and barriers to entry lower. He regrets sharing a TubeGen promotional video that led to many imitators flooding his niche. More daunting, however, is the threat from well-funded media companies industrializing profitable formats. He estimates individual creators have until roughly 2027 to profit significantly before large firms dominate content production. For example, a World War II history channel he admired was overshadowed by a media company producing three daily videos at triple the cost—a scale individual creators can’t match without similar budgets. Nonetheless, Davis remains optimistic, seeking niche innovations within existing formats. Recently, he experimented with narrated horror stories over looping Minecraft footage to attract viewers who enjoy listening to such content while falling asleep. He sees the concept as validated by initial results. Looking forward, Davis believes as AI content proliferates and trust diminishes, authenticity will gain value. He anticipates a shift favoring genuine brands and influencers with real faces who avoid heavy editing and algorithmic manipulation. “It’ll get worse before it gets better, ” he said, but “true longevity is going to come within brands and real influencers. ”