YouTube has AI creator tools, but creators are too busy battling AI to care

YouTube released a new set of artificial intelligence tools in mid-September. These tools are used in almost every aspect of content creation, including generating ideas for topics and editing videos. But even as AI features have caused an uproar in so many other creative industries, the response to YouTube’s new suite of tools has been muted. The YouTube community is instead sharing concerns over the impact of generative AI on the platform.

It’s been a watershed year as generative AI tools have made it easier to create images and text, all generated from internet scrapes of others’ art and writing. Artists and writers have typically pushed back, citing issues like copyright and their own work being undermined — in September, high-profile authors including George R.R. Martin and Jodi Pioult have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI over the scrapping of their books. And then there’s generative AI’s issues with hallucination and inaccuracies.

These tools are used both professionally and experimentally by many. AI art has won awards, and some news websites have cut staff to publish AI-generated content. AI is also a key component of TikTok. Specifically, AI-powered filtering. Creators use the Bold Glamour filter to apply makeup, a Ghibli filter to look like characters from the studio’s films, and even pay a fee for filters that generate themed avatars — like the hugely popular ’90s high school photo filter.

Maybe it’s the fact that YouTube’s tools aren’t available to the general public yet. The quiet response seems to defy the current trend. On the YouTube Creators account on X (formerly known as Twitter), the announcement only picked up a few hundred likes, doing similarly to engagement-bait tweets like “how do you make your audience feel seen and heard?” On the main YouTube account, it performed worse than a tweet reading “stars are kinda just sky rocks.”

On the platform itself, it’s difficult to find videos discussing the tools at all, despite a thriving community of YouTubers who explain how to use AI tools in making videos — just not the ones announced by YouTube. These videos instead focus on existing tools that can be used to create scripts, voice-overs and images to make the visuals for a video. YouTube’s new tools basically give creators an in-house option for much of this: Creators will be able to generate video prompts and script outlines, automatically edit clips together, and create AI-voiced dubs into other languages.

The main potential draw is that these AI tools would generate content based off of creators’ own historical output. For example, YouTube says the “insights” tool will be personalized so that new video ideas will take into account what a creator’s audience is already watching, something that other text generators can’t do without access to YouTube’s data. It also aims to recommend music for videos, including royalty-free music that hypothetically should help creators know what won’t get them troublesome copyright strikes.

But existing creators don’t seem particularly interested one way or the other. “No one’s heard of it yet,” says Jimmy McGee, a YouTuber who recently made a video titled “The AI Revolution is Rotten to the Core.” As the title might suggest, he’s not a huge fan of YouTube’s proposed tools, but he says it’s “strange” how they’ve been received.

According to him, these tools may be geared primarily towards creators and that viewers might not even notice when, for instance, a video has been edited using AI. He doesn’t think the more obvious tools, like the melty generated visuals of Dream Screen, will take off in the long run. “People will get sick of those quick enough that it’s not really a problem,” he says. Other tools, however, could lead to long-term issues for creators.

McGee is concerned that viewers may not notice when AI software has been used to edit video. “It’s going to de-skill newer people on YouTube,” he says. In its present form he does not believe that this will be able to replace the professional editor, however it is likely that it can prevent newer creators growing their skill. YouTube touts the feature as a way to get people started who may not have confidence in their abilities yet. It’s also aimed toward Shorts, YouTube’s vertical-video spinoff, so it might make things easier for those who only have their phones to edit on. McGee believes that video makers who rely on this tool may be discouraged from pursuing their creative goals in the future.

“I think the more decisions you can make in your video, the better the video can be,” says McGee. “Maybe it won’t be [at first]The ceiling of the building is much higher. That’s what worries me. If someone goes in earnestly trying to use these tools, it’d be very sad to see them give up.”

That potential pitfall depends on whether YouTube’s tools stick around. Parent company Google has a habit of shuttering things — including features it has hyped up a lot more than this one. Most companies are currently losing money on generative AI. “We’re probably going to see a decline in its popularity pretty soon,” says media and fandom critic Sarah Z. “[In the meantime] I hope these tools are helpful to creators and serve as a way of empowering them to better execute videos that serve their visions rather than a way to undercut creators.”

AI has already impacted some creators’ work. Just before YouTube’s tool announcement, creator Abyssoft released a video about a potential case of plagiarism. He compared a similar video that he made with a second video posted by another channel. In the video, Abyssoft speculated about how AI might have been employed to steal the video, such as using AI voice over software and speech-to text programs.

Abyssoft responded to a request for comment by pointing out that the issue is widespread on the platform. Kyle Hill, a science communicator from the University of Washington in May, spoke out against YouTube channels that use AI to generate unverified content for their site. They are misleading videos and sometimes appear to be copies of topics Hill had previously made.

In his video, Abyssoft says that he isn’t sure what the solution to these issues is. YouTube could disclose the use of AI in creating videos, he says. He’d also like to see “a punishment or strike system for people that fail to disclose and are proven to be using AI.”

This would be easier if it were YouTube’s own AI tools that were being used; the platform would already be aware. In response to a request for comment on whether Google was considering implementing this feature or any additional measures to avoid plagiarism and misinformation on the platform, Google policy communications manager Jack Malon stated that all content is subject to the existing community guidelines, and that these are “enforced consistently for all creators on our platform, regardless of whether their content is generated using artificial intelligence.”

Abyssoft viewed some other AI tools, such as the one that helps music creators to avoid issues with copyright, as useful. However, the company is still concerned about what the easy availability of AI tools could do for YouTube creators. “AI facilitates plagiarism in a way we haven’t seen before, and with a bit of effort it will soon become undetectable,” he says. “Competing in a sea of faceless AI channels will be a tough challenge for creators who make a living this way, as their upload cadence will be greatly outpaced by the AI.”

However, he doesn’t think that AI will necessarily produce interesting videos. “I’m assuming the tool that suggests video topics is only going to suggest ideas that it thinks will do well in the algorithm,” he says. “Things will get incredibly formulaic if [it’s] relied on too much.”

He does acknowledge that channels with technical content, such as his own speedrunning history videos, have the advantage of research and understanding that can’t be carried out by AI. McGee feels the same way about his style. “My videos are messy and I like them that way,” he says. “I can make all the melty, weird visuals myself and make something I’m actually proud of.”

Some channels will not survive. “Someone that covers current news will see AI upload videos before their editing is finished, since it can just scrape whatever articles have been published for the day and render out a video and voice-over in less than an hour,” says Abyssoft.

YouTube’s tools haven’t yet launched beyond a few test countries, so it’ll be some time until we see the impact they’ll have on the platform. But while creators have concerns that they might add new issues for both existing and upcoming video makers, they also have prior concerns about the use of AI that they feel aren’t being addressed by the platform. It seems to be these that are holding creators’ attention, not any new announcements.