YouTube announces new AI tools for its creators: Veo, Communities, automatic copying, and more

At a YouTube event on Wednesday, September 18, in New York, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced new AI tools for creators on the platform.

AI tools aim to “support creators at every step of the journey” and range from AI-powered inspiration to AI video generators. Mohan emphasized AI’s ability to further YouTube’s mission to be “the best home for creators” and assured creators that it would build on its “track record of commitment.” He added that 92 percent of creators are already using AI tools. The new features will be available to developers in the coming months and early 2025.

Johanna Woolich, YouTube’s chief product officer, told Mashable that the team prioritizes the full creative lifecycle when creating these products. Here is a breakdown of the announced tools.

Wow

Perhaps the biggest announcement of the event was Veo, six-second AI-generated video clips designed for YouTube Shorts, the platform’s competitor to TikTok. It runs on Google’s DeepMind technology and uses text information to generate clips.

Following a show from Joe Ano, the creator and fashion designer behind Ella Emhoff’s dress for the Democratic National Convention, where he used Veo to make the clothes move, Sarah Ali, executive director of the brand, brushed aside potential criticism of the feature by saying, “[Veo] it only works because of Joe’s creative vision.” Other shows have included an AI-generated video of a dog and a sheep becoming friends.

Veo Shorts will be branded with SynthID ensuring that AI-generated content is clearly labeled. Over time, the way people think about this may change, but for now, we want to have that level of transparency so that people can make their own decisions about what they’re watching,” said Woolich.

Veo’s announcement comes on the heels of other platforms introducing AI-generated video capabilities such as OpenAI’s Sora.

Inspiration tab

YouTube wants to simplify the creative process and aims to do so with the Inspiration tab, an AI-powered hub that helps creators come up with video ideas, titles, icons, and frames. User comments will also be included in the AI ​​vision inspiration. Users will not be able to opt out of posting their comments. “The way YouTube works is based on donations, donations from the creators of their videos, but the contributions of the viewers are what they watch and what they comment on. That’s what makes the platform work,” said Woolich.

Users are already participating in what Woolich calls “invisible AI.” “That’s the AI ​​we’ve been using forever at YouTube to build our search and recommendation systems,” he said. “That’s what you see in your home feed and what’s next. That’s user-centric AI.”

Engaging with viewers

YouTube also announced the use of AI to help creators connect with their viewers. The tool will highlight key commenters, show creators their “profile cards” and past comments, and offer AI-enhanced reply suggestions in the creator’s voice.

It also announced another way to engage viewers, “Communities.” A reminder of the Substack chat, Communities allows creators to post directly to their audience and viewers can post their own photos and text posts.

Additionally, YouTube introduced “Hype,” a way for viewers to support their favorite emerging creators by suggesting that their videos be brought to a wider audience. The tool plays a big role in the popularity of the creator and will only be available for videos posted in the last 7 days by the creator with 5,000 subscribers or less. Users will receive a limited number of Hypes per week, but the platform is exploring selling more Hypes to generate new revenue for creators.

Auto-Dubbing

Using AI, YouTube converts automatically generated captions into subtitles in different languages. A feature called “expressive speech” aims to make the transcription closer to the original speech by imitating pitch, pitch, and external noise. It will expand to 100,000 creators in the coming months.

In non-AI news, YouTube is expanding its streaming rewards by introducing a model similar to TikTok and Twitch of “gifts” from viewers to creators. It will also allow creators to organize their videos into Seasons and Episodes as more people watch YouTube on televisions and YouTubers compete to win Emmy Awards.