20 Years of YouTube: Everything you need to know about its all-new AI features

YouTube unveiled a slew of creator-focused tools and features on the platform, at its annual Made on YouTube event held in New York on Tuesday.

“We didn't just create a platform. We built an economy,” said Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube, adding that 20-year-old YouTube is now set to use AI to chart the platform’s next phase of growth.

YouTube has paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies around the world in the last four years.

Key announcements and will they be available in India?

Edit with AI

YouTube introduced ‘Edit with AI’ capability to the platform in a bid to simplify video editing and help creators start from a blank timeline by generating a first draft automatically from the raw footage.

Under this, users will simply have to select their raw videos and choose the Edit With AI feature, choose their video style from a series of options such as comic, narrative, and stylish, and Google’s AI model will intelligently select and arranges the best moments, aside from adding music, transitions, and playful voiceovers if any in both English and Hindi.

This feature is currently being tested on YouTube Shorts and the YouTube Create app and is set to coming to India and other select markets in coming weeks. A reason why the Edit with AI feature has been launched in India is because the country hosts a wide variety of creators that will simultaneously help in building Google’s already well-built Hindi LLM capabilities.

However, in order to ensure easy tracking of such AI-generated or AI-assisted videos, YouTube will use SynthID watermarks and content labels to mark such content.

Create with Veo 3

Google’s DeepMind had launched its best-ever video-generation model Veo 3 earlier this year. Now, YouTube brings a customised version of this model as Veo 3 Fast to creators who can generate video clips with sound at 480p on mobile with lower latency, for YouTube Shorts.

Further with this model, creators will be able to add motion, such as a dance move or a sports action, to their still photos or incomplete videos on the Create App. Further, videos can now be turned into a particular format such as a creative pop art, or add objects to some scenes using text prompts.

This, however, is yet to expand to the India market.

Music with Lyria 2

Another interesting tool developed by YouTube, and expected to be offered in its select markets including the U.S., is the AI speech-to-music functionality. Users can now transform their speech to lyrics of a song, composing music using Lyria 2, DeepMind’s advanced AI music model.

The latest announcements suggest that YouTube is focusing on expanding its content creator base, potentially developing it into a separate monetisation stream. In markets like India, this translates to more efficient content strategy and workflow tools for creators, though YouTube appears to be taking a cautious approach in rolling out features.

Two decades in, as YouTube officially enters adulthood, the question is no longer of survival but of relevance and impact. Will in its late 20s and middle age, YouTube fade into an inconsequential platform, or will it continue to inspire app makers for generations? With AI increasingly at its core, the platform seems determined to aim for the latter.