YouTube’s latest AI experiments include a new chatbot designed to give you more information about the video you’re watching. He conversational AI toolas Google support post calls it, aims to answer your questions about a video and can also recommend related content. It can also quiz you on a topic if you are watching an educational video. The experimental feature was announced alongside another AI tool that aims to organize a video’s comments into topics.
“We may not always get it right”
YouTube emphasizes that its two new AI tools are only available as part of limited experiments for now. According to their support page., the conversational AI tool is only available in English, on select videos, on Android devices, and to Premium subscribers in the US 18+. When available, it can be accessed by clicking a button called “Ask a Question” below the video. Screenshots of the feature show how you can choose between pre-generated messages that ask the chatbot to summarize the video or recommend related content, or you can write your own messages.
The video platform previously announced it was experimenting with using AI to automatically generate video summaries in July. But the new tool appears to have a broader reach, offering not only AI-generated summaries but also answers to specific questions, as well as information about videos beyond what you’re currently watching.
In addition to the conversational AI tool, YouTube has also announced a new AI-based comment categorization feature, which aims to sort comments on a video into individual topics. Example comment topics shown below a Video by MrBestia (where Google says the comments have been “mocked for illustrative purposes”) include “People love Bryan the bird,” “Lazarbeam should be featured in more videos,” and the slightly more confusing topic “no submarine.”
The topics feature is also being run as an experiment and will be displayed on a “small number of English videos that have large comment sections.” When available, the feature can be accessed via a new “Topics” button that will appear next to the existing options to sort comments by “Top” or “Most Recent.”
YouTube’s blog post emphasizes the benefits this feature will have for video creators, who it says will be able to “use these comment summaries to more quickly engage in comment discussions about their videos or to get inspiration for new content based on their audiences.” that is discussed.”
With both AI tools, YouTube warns that “we may not always get it right” with the experiments. Particularly when it comes to YouTube comments, the video platform will have to be on guard if it wants to prevent its generative AI from regurgitating the worst of a heated comments section. Premium subscribers who would like to try out the features should go to youtube.com/newwhere you can sign up to test the comment categorization feature now and will be able to test the chatbot in the coming weeks.
