YouTube introduced a suite of new AI-powered tools and enhanced features for content creators at its annual "Made on YouTube" event this week. The updates span across YouTube Studio, YouTube Live, Shorts, YouTube Music, podcasting, and monetization strategies, aiming to streamline content creation, improve engagement, and offer new revenue streams, according to company announcements.
Key advancements in YouTube Studio include an expanded "likeness"-detection feature, now in open beta, allowing users to identify and manage unauthorized videos utilizing their facial likeness. The company also rolled out an AI-powered "Ask Studio" for user guidance and introduced a collaboration feature enabling up to five creators to work on a single video.
For YouTube Live, the platform now supports simultaneous horizontal and vertical format broadcasting. Other additions include minigames for viewer entertainment, AI-driven highlight generation for converting live stream segments into shareable Shorts, and a new "side-by-side" ad format designed to run adjacent to content without interruption.
Generative AI tools are being integrated into Shorts, featuring a custom version of Google's text-to-video model, "Veo 3 Fast." This tool enables creators to apply motion from existing videos to images, introduce various styles, and insert objects into video clips via text prompts. Additionally, Google's AI music model, "Lyria 2," will facilitate the transformation of video dialogue into soundtracks for other Shorts.
YouTube is leveraging AI to assist U.S.-based video podcast creators with clip generation, with an upcoming feature to convert audio podcasts into video formats. Monetization updates include new avenues through brand deals and the YouTube Shopping program. Creators can now utilize auto timestamps for product tags, automatic tagging for eligible items, and a dedicated brand link feature for Shorts, supported by an AI system designed to identify optimal product mention moments.
