YouTube Is Getting Two New Smart Features

YouTube is adding new AI-powered tools that are meant to make it easier for users to find and interact with content. These updates include an AI-driven search results carousel and a wider release of its conversational AI feature.

While both of these AI tools are designed to help users discover videos more easily, they do it in very different ways. The one that interests me the most is conversational AI. Only Premium members can use it, but soon, some non-Premium users in the US will also get access. If you look under the description of a video, you’ll see the Gemini Diamond, and then a new chat pops up that you can talk to.

Beyond answering questions, the AI can also summarize a video, giving a quick overview of what it covers, which would be helpful for deciding whether to watch the whole thing. The tool can suggest similar videos, but I tried, and it doesn’t seem much better than a search button. Since it’s an AI chat, you’re having a conversation more than just searching for videos.

In other words, it keeps you from doing what you came to YouTube to do. It’s a strange addition to the site that regular users will now have to deal with. However, this is just another push to integrate AI everywhere it can fit, even if it’s not entirely necessary.

On the other hand, the new AI-powered search results carousel sounds helpful. This feature recommends videos and provides summaries of topics using information from YouTube creators. For example, if someone searches for the “best beaches in Hawaii,” the AI might generate a carousel that displays short clips from various videos, highlighting features such as great snorkeling spots or volcanic beaches.

Each clip is accompanied by a title and a brief description, providing helpful details related to the search. The carousel plays videos one after another from left to right, and users can tap on thumbnails to jump straight to a specific clip. This is similar to the story format seen on Facebook and Instagram.

Right now, this AI-generated search carousel is only available to YouTube Premium subscribers in the United States. It appears for searches related to shopping, travel, or activities in a certain area, but only when using the YouTube app on mobile devices, so it won’t show up for every search.

I’m looking forward to the carousel, since Facebook’s version tends to show me videos I actually want to see. However, the success of this depends on how intuitive the AI actually is. The YouTube algorithm isn’t the best, as TikTok seems to lead the way with its algorithm, but it’s good enough that we can give it a chance.

Source: YouTube, Engadget