Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Bing Chat are often wrong or inaccurate, but one area where they are usually helpful is condensing down text into short summaries. Google is now experimenting with that ability on YouTube, where it will use AI to automatically generate summaries of videos.

Google announced in a support article, "We’re starting to test AI auto-generated summaries on YouTube, so that it’s easier for you to read a quick summary about a video and decide whether it’s the right fit for you. To begin with, you may see these summaries on watch and search pages. While we hope these summaries are helpful and give you a quick overview of what a video is about, they do not replace video descriptions (which are written by creators!)."

No one has spotted the AI summaries yet, so we don't know how well they work, but it's not hard to see that they might be a decent use of generative AI. YouTube already automatically creates transcripts of most videos, for use in subtitles and other features. The AI feature is likely just taking that transcript and condensing it, perhaps with additional data from the description and other elements.

Google was quick to note that the summaries aren't replacing video descriptions. The support page explains, "This experiment is running only with a limited number of videos ([English] only) and viewers, so if you see the feature, let us know what you think by sending feedback!"

The new functionality is part of Google's larger focus on generative AI, which also includes the Bard chatbot, AI responses in web search results, the NotebookLM note-taking application, and other projects. Unfortunately, at least some of that push has been purely reactionary. Google has been slow and careful with AI features over the past few years to prevent misuse and damaging its own reputation, but after OpenAI and Microsoft started launching more impressive (but often wrong) chatbots, the company started rushing out products. Google's Bard chatbot wasn't great when it first launched, and while it has improved somewhat since then, it does still seem like Google and Microsoft are pushing potential issues to the side.

Source: YouTube Help

Via: Android Police