YouTube Tests Generative AI Features with YouChat Tool
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Google-owned YouTube announced it is rolling out a series of experimental generative AI features for its premium subscribers. These features aim to enhance user interaction and understanding of content.
One of the most notable features is a tool called "YouChat." YouTube stated that this will help viewers gain deeper insights into the content they are watching. Starting today, select users will be able to activate YouTube's AI chatbot, which will answer questions related to the content being viewed and provide recommendations for related videos.
Additionally, there may be content-related quizzes, with YouTube assuring that these interactions will not disrupt video playback.
While this feature is initially available to a limited group of users this week, it will expand to all premium subscribers using Android devices in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Users will see an "Ask" button next to certain videos to initiate interactions. Interestingly, this feature is unrelated to Google's Bard chatbot and is instead based on YouTube's own large language models and other web-based models.
YouTube also announced another feature that organizes video comments. Anyone familiar with YouTube knows that comment sections can be overwhelming with diverse opinions. Generative AI will summarize these comments into concise themes, which YouTube calls "easy-to-understand topics." This will help creators gauge audience sentiment without sifting through every comment. Creators can choose whether to delete comment topics. This feature is currently limited to English-language videos with a high volume of comments, and premium subscribers can opt in to use it.
However, YouTube emphasized that these features are experimental and may not always be perfect. Therefore, they are starting with limited availability and actively collecting user feedback. Each experiment allows users to provide feedback directly within the tool. This initiative aims to continuously improve these features for a better user experience. YouTube's new features further advance the application of generative AI in content creation and interaction.