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YouTube is now rolling out a new conversational artificial intelligence (AI) feature to users. On Tuesday, the company announced that the new tool, which will let users ask queries about the content of a specific video, is being expanded to YouTube Premium subscribers in the US. Earlier, this feature was available in beta, but now more users can interact with the chatbot using a new button added underneath the videos. The video streaming platform is also rolling out ‘pause ads’ or ads that play when a video is paused to a wider user base.
YouTube Premium Subscribers to Get New Conversational AI
The official handle of TeamYouTube announced the rolling out of the feature in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). The feature is being rolled out to YouTube Premium subscribers using Android devices in the US. The company did not specify when the feature will be available to users in other regions.
Those who are eligible for the feature will soon see a new Ask button underneath the videos, in the same row as Like, Share, and Download buttons. The new button is followed by the sparkle icon, which Google is now using to denote AI-based features. Tapping this button will open a window in place of the comment section which will let users type queries about the video.
Users can ask the AI for details about a specific object shown in the video, the genre of a song being played, or a summary of the video. Additionally, they can also request the AI to recommend similar content. In a support page, the company highlighted that the tool may not be available in every video. Currently, it supports select English-language videos.
The company did not reveal the name of the large language model (LLM) being used for this feature but explained that the “LLMs draw on info from YouTube and the web”. This means the conversational AI tool is not only reliant on subtitle data and video processing to answer user queries.
YouTube will collect data whenever a user interacts with the tool and submits a query. The company said that the data is used to improve and develop products and services. The conversations of a user will be deleted from the servers automatically after 45 days.
