UPDATED 20:49 EST / NOVEMBER 06 2023

AI

YouTube is now testing experimental generative AI features on content

Google LLC-owned YouTube announced today that it’s rolling out several experimental generative artificial intelligence features for its Premium subscribers.

The most interesting item in this bag of tricks is ‘YouChat,” which YouTube said will help viewers “dive deeper into the content they are watching.” Starting today, a select number of users will be able to open a YouTube AI bot that will answer questions about the content being watched and offer recommendations for related content.

There may also be quizzes about the content. YouTube assures the viewer this and more will happen “without interrupting playback.”

This feature will be available only to a select number of users this week, but in the coming weeks, it will roll out to all Premium subscribers using Android phones in the U.S. YouTube explained that people will see an “Ask” button next to certain videos and they can go from there. Quite surprisingly, this feature is not related to Google’s Bard chatbot but other large language models trained on YouTube and the web.

YouTube said another feature will organize the comments section on videos, which, as any YouTube fan knows, can be sprawling and often contradictory. The AI will take all those comments and offer a summary, what YouTube called “easily digestible themes.” The company says this might help creators get an idea of what people are saying without putting in the effort to go through every comment. Creators are free to remove comment topics if they so choose.

The summaries will be based on published comments only, meaning not ones that have been held in the review process or ones that contain words from blocked users or contain blocked words. This feature will be available for videos in English, but only select ones with many comments. Premium subscribers can opt in by going to youtube.com/new.

“These features are experimental, and we may not always get it right,” said YouTube. “That’s why we’re starting small with limited availability and collecting feedback. Each experiment allows you to submit feedback directly in the tool.”

Photo: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

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