YouTube Experiments with AI-Generated Comment Summaries and Video Chatbot

On Monday, YouTube introduced a pair of fresh experimental generative AI features. These innovations will be accessible to YouTube Premium subscribers in the near future, offering AI-generated comment summaries and a chatbot designed to address your inquiries related to the content you’re currently viewing. It’s important to note that these features will require your active participation, as they are opt-in and exclusively available to paying members who choose to join the testing phase.

The AI-driven comment summaries will systematically categorize comments into easily understandable themes. In a demonstration using a video from Mr. Beast as an example, the tool identified topics such as “Bryan the bird’s popularity,” “Increasing Lazarbeam’s video appearances,” “Absence of submarines,” and “More 7-day challenges.” Users can simply click on a topic to access a comprehensive list of associated comments. It’s worth mentioning that this tool will initially operate on a limited selection of English-language videos with substantial comment sections.

If you have concerns about YouTube’s comment summaries potentially becoming as chaotic as the platform’s comment sections often do, rest assured that the company has implemented certain safeguards. It won’t generate summaries from unpublished messages, those awaiting review, comments containing blocked terms, or those originating from blocked users. Moreover, creators have the option to use the tool to remove individual comments if they come across problematic or undesired discussions related to their videos.

On the other hand, YouTube’s conversational AI tool offers users a chatbot that’s been trained on the specific video they’re currently watching. Powered by sophisticated large language models (LLMs), this assistant enables users to delve deeper into the content by asking questions and seeking related recommendations. The AI tool, which resembles a conversation with Bard, draws information from YouTube and the web, providing answers without interrupting your viewing experience. Eligible users can access it through a new “Ask” button in the YouTube app for Android.

Starting today, YouTube Premium subscribers can choose to participate in the comment summarizer feature on YouTube’s experiments page. However, it’s important to note that not all videos will offer the “Topics” option. Additionally, the conversational AI tool is currently available to a limited number of users for select videos, but YouTube Premium subscribers using Android devices will have the opportunity to try it out in the coming weeks. The company acknowledges that these experimental features “may not always get it right,” a statement that also applies to Google’s other AI experiments.