- YouTube has started testing new AI features.
- One lets you have a conversation with an AI bot, while the other summarises comments by topics.
- The new features are available only to select YouTube Premium users.
YouTube is testing new AI features that let users learn more about the content they’re watching on the platform. There’s a new conversational AI tool that lets users ask questions about the video or choose from the suggested prompts. The other AI feature summarises comment topics by AI. The new YouTube features are available to select users who are subscribed to YouTube’s Premium membership.
YouTube AI conversational tool
This is a conversational AI tool that can be accessed by tapping on the new ‘Ask’ button that will be visible just below the video. If you tap on it, a chat box will open up where you can ask questions about the video. The chat box will run simultaneously with the video so your playback won’t be interrupted.
You’re introduced to a chatbot along with suggested prompts in case you don’t know what to ask. The questions include summarising the video, asking more about it, and also to recommend related content. You can also type in and ask questions to the YouTube chatbot.
Topics in comments
YouTube is also using AI to help communicate in the comments section. Videos that have several comments can now be filtered with topics so you can jump in on conversations about specific parts of the video. There will be a new ‘Topics’ tab in the comments section. If you tap on this, a list of topics with comments will be displayed below. You can tap on each topic to find comments only about that particular discussion.
How to get the new YouTube features
Both the new features are tests so not everyone will get to try it out. The AI conversational tool is available only to YouTube Premium members in the US. As for the comment topics, it’s available to YouTube Premium members globally. But this will be only visible in a small number of videos in English that have large comment sections. Those interested can visit youtube.com/new to take part in the experiment.
