During its Made On YouTube event on Wednesday, the company announced that creators can now brainstorm video ideas with the help of AI within YouTube Studio. YouTube will also soon let creators create AI-generated thumbnails and quickly reply to users with new AI-assisted comments.
The company beta-tested the ability for creators to brainstorm video ideas with the help of AI in May, before officially rolling the feature out to all users. To use the feature, creators enter a prompt that helps them brainstorm ideas around a specific topic.
Ebi Atawodi, director of product management for YouTube Studio, told TechCrunch that the feature looks at creators' comments and trends to give them a list of video ideas — for example, a creator might receive multiple comments asking for a follow-up video on a particular topic.
“Now, when you go to the inspiration tab, instead of having like a search box, you'll see 10 ideas to get you started, and then creators can start developing their ideas around that,” Atawodi says.
For Google, incorporating its own AI into its video platform will encourage creators to use its AI tools instead of other popular platforms such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Image credit: YouTube Studio
In the coming months, once creators start building their outline, YouTube Studio will suggest a series of AI-generated thumbnails they can use for their videos, and if they don't like the images YouTube has created for them, they can enter prompts to receive a specific type of image, using descriptions like “surreal and unexpected” or “minimalist.”
As for the new AI-assisted comments, YouTube sees the new feature as a way for creators to better engage with their audiences by quickly replying to comments. The company says the feature will recommend replies that fit a creator's style and provide a helpful starting point.
The feature is similar to Gmail's reply suggestions and offers quick response options — for example, if a viewer leaves a complimentary comment on a creator's video, the platform will suggest replying with a “Thank you so much.”
“We might offer a suggestion like, 'Thank you for watching,' and creators can add exclamation points or hearts or whatever,” Atawodi said, “but we're not starting with a blank canvas and typing it in for each person.”
Recognizing that responding to large numbers of comments can be time-consuming, YouTube believes that by making it faster and easier for creators to reply to viewers, they will be able to respond to more comments than ever before.
YouTube will begin testing AI-assisted comment reply suggestions in the coming weeks before rolling out the feature more broadly next year, while AI-generated thumbnails are expected to roll out later this year.