YouTube just unveiled new features that could make life easier for creators but come with risks

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced a suite of new AI tools for creators at the 2024 Made on YouTube event.

YouTube just announced a flurry of new AI-powered features for creators. But as the platform leans deeper into AI, could it impact perceptions of their authenticity and the originality of their work?

On Wednesday, at the company’s annual Made on YouTube event, the platform announced several new features that use generative AI.

The company is revamping its Inspiration Tab in YouTube Studio, adding a new brainstorming tool to help curate video ideas, titles, thumbnails, and outlines. The feature can generate ideas based on a creator’s content catalog, comments on their YouTube videos, or videos made by other creators.

Creator startup Spotter recently launched a similar tool for AI-generated video ideas.

YouTube is also launching AI comment replies, which will generate recommended replies to comments left under a creator’s video.

These tools are still under testing, and the company said it aims to launch them more widely in the coming months.

The features could make it easier for creators to come up with video ideas and respond to comments faster. But will it make their activities on YouTube feel less personal and original? Many creators speak often about how important authenticity and fan connections are to their businesses. Leaning too far into AI could risk those key pillars of the creator economy.

Gen AI tech is a mixed bag for YouTube and other creator-focused companies. While influencers are hungry for more tools to make video creation simpler, they’re also wary of the possibility that AI-generated content could ultimately cut into their businesses. Some YouTubers are also concerned that their content has been used to train AI models without providing appropriate compensation.

“Everything we build is really about enhancing that human creativity,” said Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, during a Q&A after the Made on YouTube event. “In all the examples, hopefully, you saw that everything we show with AI was meant to enhance the work that you do. AI is foundational to how YouTube works.”

Mohan cited YouTube’s copyright-protection tool Content ID as an example of how the company has long focused on the protection of copyright across YouTube.

“You’ve seen us be very intentful and sometimes cautious and sometimes getting accused of overly cautious about how we bring these technologies to market,” Mohan said. “We’ve been very gradual in the rollout of those types of capabilities … I think my view is that this is really what the name says: it’s a tool. It’s truly about streamlining some of that process, maybe giving you a couple of ideas that you may not have thought of.”

The company is also integrating Google DeepMind’s video generation tool Veo into shorts, letting creators generate 6-second AI-generated videos for their posts.