On Wednesday, September 18th, YouTube announced a number of AI-related features that’ll apply to different parts of its platform, including several that are likely to cause a paradigm shift in how creators approach making videos in the future.
The changes were announced at the company’s Made on YouTube event in NYC, and if you’re a creator and have your own YouTube channel, you’ll see these features being rolled out later this year and into early 2025.
What Are YouTube’s New AI Features?
The new Inspiration tab is the first of two key features for creators; you’ll see it in your YouTube Studio app when it rolls out. This tab is meant to be something of an AI brainstorming assistant, suggesting a video concept, title, thumbnail, and even an outline and a few lines of script to help set you on your way.
According to YouTube, this tool will have the power to build out entire projects, but it remains to be seen if this plays out. Google, YouTube’s parent company, has a policy of rewarding high-quality content, no matter how it is produced. Specifically, they’re looking for E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). This is likely to define the bounds of just how far the new AI Inspiration tool will go, although creators are still looking forward to learning just how well Inspiration-generated ideas will work in the YouTube platform’s algorithm.
The second big AI feature for creators is the integration of Google’s DeepMind AI video generation model, Veo. Veo was unveiled at the Google I/O 2024 developer conference earlier this year and is intended to be a direct competitor to models like Sora, Pika, Runway, and Irreverent Labs as it creates 1080p clips in various styles.
Didn’t YouTube Already Use AI in Shorts?
YouTube’s Dream Screen feature allows you to generate backgrounds in Shorts using text prompts, but Veo is intended to be a major upgrade via the increased quality of clips it can generate. The new model can also edit and remix previously generated footage. This will be of a lot of value to creators, given the potential of creating B-roll or filler video for their projects.
Veo is due to be integrated into YouTube Dream Screen during the course of 2024, and creators will be able to use it to generate 6-second standalone clips for Shorts. They will, however, be watermarked as AI-generated using SynthID, a technology that isn’t visible to the naked eye but can be identified using certain tools.
What Other Features Are Coming to YouTube?
YouTube announced a slew of other features to enhance the platform going forward, one of the most exciting being an expansion of the platform’s automatic dubbing tool. It’ll now support more languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
The company is also testing a feature called Expressive Speech, intended to transfer a creator's tone and intonation as well as any ambient sounds into the automated dub track.
On top of that, YouTube is also going to broaden its Hyping feature to more markets, having piloted it in Brazil, Taiwan, and Turkey. Hyping allows users to support their favorite creators and videos, with the most-hyped videos displayed on a special leaderboard.
Engagement will also be boosted by a new feature that will work like a chat function on a creator’s channel. The YouTube Studio’s comments tab will be renamed Community, and creators can head there to chat with top community members and commenters. For the busy creators out there, AI will learn from their respective styles and offer reply suggestions.
Finally, the platform also appears to be taking a page out of TikTok’s playbook by introducing a feature called Jewels. These are meant to be digital items that viewers can send to creators during live streams, much like TikTok’s Gifts.
What’s the Best Way to Use the New YouTube AI Features?
If you’re new to the world of content creation or are interested in the earning potential of YouTube, especially since it looks like it’s going to get a lot easier thanks to the upcoming AI infusion, you can get started by reading our guide on monetizing YouTube.
On the other hand, for established creators who want to figure out how to make the most of these changes and the new direction YouTube is taking, it’s worth checking out the YouTube communities on Whop. There, you’ll find creators of all levels, including experts who have started multiple viral channels—whether you’d prefer an open forum or some one-on-one consultation to develop your own channel’s strategy, you’ll be well taken care of.
