YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has announced a slate of new artificial intelligence features coming to the platform.
At a promotional event in Google’s Manhattan office on Wednesday, Mohan said the new generative AI features, which will be introduced at unspecified times throughout the rest of the year, will give “billions of people around the world access to AI” while building on YouTube’s “track record of responsibility”.
The features include six-second AI-generated video clips that can be generated and integrated into YouTube Shorts, the platform’s short-form video hub that launched following the success of TikTok, through a feature powered by Google’s DeepMind AI technology.
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NBC News previously reported generative AI has been used to spread disinformation on YouTube, including channels with millions of video views that churn out misleading and fake news coverage about celebrities.
AI-manipulated imagery of celebrities has been used to create misleading thumbnails and push salacious narratives.
YouTube removed some of the channels and material after NBC News flagged them for comment.
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In response to a question during the event about concerns over AI misuse, Mohan said AI is foundational to how YouTube works, including its content recommendation algorithm.
“Everything we build is really about enhancing human creativity,” he said.
YouTube will also integrate generative AI text and image output into an “Inspiration” feature for creators, which is intended to feed them suggestions and examples for video content.
Generative AI will even offer “AI-enhanced” suggestions for how creators can respond to comments.
“This is not about replacing ideas. This is about giving you the tools to get you there faster,” YouTube senior director of product Sarah Ali said.
The announcement follows a slew of other AI integrations from other companies, from Microsoft to Meta.
Mohan said 92 per cent of YouTube creators already use AI tools.
The new AI video creation tool is called Veo.
Creators will input text prompts to create AI images, which can then become the basis of the six-second clips. Mohan teased it with an AI-generated video of a dog and a sheep becoming friends.
YouTube is the latest platform to announce AI-generated video capabilities, following demos from OpenAI of its text-to-video technology Sora.
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Ali said the AI-generated Veo creations will be watermarked with SynthID, a tool developed by DeepMind for watermarking and identifying AI-generated material, and will be applied with a label that clearly communicates to viewers that it was generated with AI.
As AI-generated content has flooded YouTube, Google and the rest of the internet, most of it has not featured watermarks — a trust and safety commitment made by many companies that researchers have found is easy to bypass.
Other new features
YouTube global head of artists Vivien Lewit also introduced an AI feature called Dream Track, which will be able to generate instrument-only tracks for Shorts, as well as a tool called Music AI Sandbox that can make musical “loops”.
YouTube will also expand its “auto-dubbing” feature, which can translate videos into other languages. An “expressive speech” update will aim to make the dubs sound more natural, imitating the pitch, intonation and acoustic environment of the original audio.
A new feature called the ”Hype” button will give viewers the opportunity to suggest videos be featured in a new kind of trending page. Over the past few years, YouTube’s “Trending” page that featured top-performing videos on the platform has been moved around and split into categories.
As more people have watched YouTube on traditional TV screens and YouTubers set their sights on winning Emmy awards, YouTube is also giving creators the option to identify their videos as “Seasons” and “Episodes”.
The platform is also building out its “Communities” feature, which gives fans of YouTubers a hub in which to congregate and interact.
YouTube is also introducing more ways for creators to monetise directly from their viewers, including livestream “gifts” that are similar to TikTok Live and Twitch, where viewers can reward creators with small donations.
The AI announcement builds on some previous features introduced by YouTube. In 2023, the company debuted an AI-generated background feature called “DreamScreen” for Shorts.
