In his annual letter, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dubbed AI one of the company’s four “big bets” for 2025. The executive pointed to the company’s investments in AI tools for creators, including ones for video ideas, thumbnails, and language translation. The latter feature will roll out to all creators in YouTube’s Partner Program this month, the company said, while another AI feature will identify users’ ages to customize appropriate content and recommendations.
Over the past year or so, YouTube has rolled out creator features for generating images and video backgrounds, as well as adding music to short videos.
Introducing AI into the video creation process has not been without controversy. Some argue that AI-created content will dilute the value of YouTube, as poorly made AI content floods the site. This isn’t a universally held point of view, however, as others suggest AI will be a tool to aid video production, not a replacement for creativity.
Other AI tools help creators reach new audiences. This includes auto dubbing, which will let creators translate their videos into multiple language with minimal effort.
In his letter, Mohan says the auto dubbing feature will be available to all creators in the YouTube Partner Program later this month.
The company also said it will be investing in tools to detect and control how AI is used on YouTube. This will include an expansion of its pilot program with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) that will give more people access to tech that can identify and manage AI-generated content featuring their likeness.
YouTube last fall announced a new set of AI detection tools that would protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians, and athletes, from having their likeness — such as their face and voice — copied and used in other videos. The expansion of YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which identifies copyright-protected material in videos, will detect simulated faces or voices that were made with AI tools, it said.
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Mohan also noted in the letter that YouTube this year will deploy machine-learning technology to estimate users’ ages to assist with showing them age-appropriate experiences and recommendations. He did not reveal how the tech would determine ages or what might be done if the AI gets things wrong.
However, social media services like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others, have already been using age estimation and verification tech for years.
Outside of AI, YouTube’s other big bets for 2025 included a focus on YouTube as the epicenter of culture (a position one could argue has been ceded to TikTok); YouTubers as the new Hollywood; and an emphasis on YouTube on TVs, which have now surpassed mobile as the primary viewing device for YouTube in the U.S.
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