Google’s Experimental AI Systems for YouTube

On its YouTube video sharing network, Google is developing two experimental artificial intelligence (AI) systems for users and artists.

As per a YouTube Help page, the initial trial uses artificial intelligence (AI) to arrange extensive comment sections of lengthy videos into themes that are easily comprehensible.

Content producers will be able to use this tool to categorize their comment sections by subject, highlight particular remarks, and even remove comments that are associated with a particular issue.

As of right now, the experiment is “running on a small number of English-language videos with substantial comment sections.”

As part of YouTube’s experimental feature program, users of YouTube Premium can choose to participate. The second, meanwhile, seems a tad more ambitious.

“To help you dive deeper into the content you’re watching, we’re experimenting with a conversational AI tool. This tool lets you get answers to questions about the video you’re watching, recommendations for related content, and more, all without interrupting playback.”

It takes the shape of a generative AI chatbot, sort of like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard, intending to interact with users as they watch videos.

As per YouTube, the chatbot can offer enhanced involvement by generating quizzes for people who watch specific academic films.

According to YouTube, this trial is now available for a “small number of people on a subset of videos” and will be made available to Premium Android users in the United States in the upcoming weeks.

It’s unclear if these features will be widely available, and YouTube seems to be quick to provide the cliched notice that the new features are experimental and that “we may not always get it right.”

Although a lot of YouTube users might be happy to have the tools, it’s important to remember that there isn’t much public testing done on AI systems that can interact with large amounts of video and audio content as well as the general public.

It will be interesting to observe how YouTube handles the occasionally erratic results generated by generative artificial intelligence systems.