In his annual letter, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dubbed AI one of the company’s four “big bets” for 2025. The executive pointed to the company’s investments in AI tools for creators, including ones for video ideas, thumbnails, and language translation. The latter feature will roll out to all creators in YouTube’s Partner Program this month, the company said, while another AI feature will identify users’ ages to customize appropriate content and recommendations.
Over the past year or so, YouTube has rolled out creator features to generate images and video backgrounds, and add music to short videos.
The addition of AI into the video creation process itself has not been without controversy, though, as some argue that AI-created content will dilute the value of YouTube, as poorly-made AI content fills up the site. (This isn’t a universally held point of view, as others believe AI will be a tool to aid video production, not a replacement for creativity.)
Other AI tools help creators reach new audiences, like an auto dubbing feature that will allow creators to translate their videos into multiple language with minimal effort.
In his letter, Mohan says that it will make the auto dubbing feature available to all creators in the YouTube Partner Program later this month.
The company also said it will be investing in tools to detect and control how AI is used on YouTube. This will include an expansion of its pilot program with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) that will give more people access to tech that can identify and manage the AI-generated content that features their likeness.
YouTube last fall had announced a new set of AI detection tools that would protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians and athletes, from having their likeness — such as their face and voice — copied and used in other videos. An expansion of YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which identified copyright-protected material in videos, the new system will detect simulated faces or voices that were made with AI tools, it said.
Mohan also noted in the letter that YouTube this year will deploy machine-learning technology to estimate users’ ages to assist with showing them age-appropriate experiences and recommendations. He did not reveal how the tech would determine ages or what could be done if the AI got things wrong.
Outside of AI, YouTube’s other big bets for 2025 included a focus on YouTube as the epicenter of culture (a position one could argue has been ceded to TikTok); YouTubers as the new Hollywood; and an emphasis on YouTube on the big screen, as the TV has now surpassed mobile as the primary viewing device for YouTube in the U.S.
