August 2, 2023
YouTube is testing a new feature that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create video summaries. These summaries will appear on both search and watch pages, and are intended to help users decide whether or not a video is worth watching.
The summaries will be brief, only a few lines long, and will not replace the video descriptions created by the original creators. For now, YouTube has not released any details about which videos will be getting these summaries, which users will see them, or what the summaries will look like.
The summary feature is similar to a Chrome extension that debuted in May. This new feature is actually from YouTube’s own AI and appears in search alongside a video, not in an additional sidebar.
The summary feature is one of several recent changes at YouTube. Last month, the company announced an AI voice dubbing feature that enables users to hear videos in their native language. YouTube also just raised the price of its Premium service.
The biggest hurdle facing the summary feature will be accuracy. As seen by OpenAI recently pulling its own program away from the public, AI can be incredibly useful but also can be incredibly wrong at times.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.
