YouTube Announces New AI Tools for Creators
YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, has recently announced a suite of new AI tools designed to support creators at every step of their journey. The company’s CEO, Neal Mohan, revealed the news at an event in New York on September 18.
The AI tools are aimed at making the creative process easier for creators, from generating ideas to video production. According to Johanna Voolich, YouTube’s chief of product, the team prioritized the full creative lifecycle when building these products.
The most significant announcement was the introduction of Veo, a six-second AI-generated video clip feature designed specifically for YouTube Shorts, the platform’s TikTok competitor. Veo uses text prompts and Google’s DeepMind technology to produce video clips. In a demonstration, Joe Ano, a fashion designer, used Veo to generate dresses in motion.
To ensure transparency, Veo Shorts will be watermarked with SynthID, which will clearly label AI-generated content. According to Voolich, “over time, how people think of this may change, but right now, we want to have that level of transparency so people can make their own judgments about what they’re watching.”
Other AI-powered tools include the Inspiration tab, an AI-generated hub that helps creators come up with video ideas, titles, thumbnails, and outlines. This feature will also incorporate user comments, but users won’t be able to opt out of their comments’ inclusion.
To engage with audiences, YouTube is using AI to help creators keep up with their viewers. The tool will highlight key commenters, show creators their “profile cards” and past comments, and provide AI-enhanced reply suggestions in the creator’s voice. The platform is also launching “Communities,” a feature reminiscent of Substack’s Chat, which allows creators to post directly to their audiences.
Additionally, YouTube is launching “Hype,” a tool that allows viewers to support their favorite up-and-coming creators by suggesting that their videos be brought to a wider audience. The tool gamifies liking a creator and will only be available for videos posted in the last 7 days by a creator with 5,000 subscribers or less.
In the realm of language, YouTube is using AI to transform automatically-generated captions into dubbing in different languages. The feature, called “expressive speech,” aims to make the dubbing as close to the original speech as possible by mimicking tone, pitch, and external noise. It will expand to 100,000s of creators in the coming months.
In non-AI news, YouTube is expanding its rewards for livestreaming by launching a model similar to TikTok and Twitch of “gifts” given by viewers to creators. The platform is also allowing creators to sort their videos into Seasons and Episodes as more people watch YouTube on television screens and YouTubers strive to win Emmy Awards.
YouTube’s new AI tools will become available to creators in the coming months and by early 2025, with 92 percent of creators already using AI tools. The platform’s emphasis on AI-powered innovation reflects its commitment to being “the best home for creators.”
