The highlight of YouTube’s Made On YouTube event this Wednesday was, unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence. The company unveiled plans to incorporate Google DeepMind’s cutting-edge video generation model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts, enabling creators to produce high-quality backgrounds and six-second clips.
Introduced at Google’s I/O 2024 developer conference, Veo is a powerful competitor in the video generation landscape, going head-to-head with OpenAI’s Sora and other models like Pika, Runway, and Irreverent Labs. It boasts the ability to create 1080p video clips across various cinematic styles.
The integration of Veo into Shorts is a major upgrade from YouTube’s 2023 AI-powered “Dream Screen” feature, which allowed creators to generate backgrounds using text prompts. YouTube believes Veo will significantly enhance the background generation process, enabling creators to create more impressive videos. A standout feature of Veo is its ability to edit and remix previously generated footage.
For the first time, creators will also be able to generate six-second standalone video clips. By selecting “Create” and entering a prompt, Dream Screen will produce four images for the creator to choose from, turning the selected photo into a video. This functionality will allow creators to add filler scenes that enhance transitions and provide context within their narratives, such as including the New York City skyline in a sightseeing video.
Veo will be integrated into Dream Screen later this year, and all AI-generated creations will be watermarked with DeepMind’s SynthID technology.
Alongside the Veo integration, YouTube introduced a range of new features, including “Jewels” and gifts—digital items that viewers can send during livestreams, similar to TikTok’s “Gifts.” Jewels aim to foster more interactive viewer-creator engagement and will begin rolling out to vertical livestreams in the U.S.
YouTube also expanded its automatic dubbing tool to include more languages, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. A notable addition is the testing of “expressive speech,” which aims to capture a creator’s tone and ambient sounds in dubbed audio, resulting in a more natural experience.
The platform is broadening the availability of its Community hubs, enabling creators and followers to share posts and interact more effectively. The “hyping” feature is also being introduced to new markets after successful trials in Brazil, Turkey, and Taiwan, allowing users to support their favorite creators and showcase videos with the highest hype points on a leaderboard.
Additionally, YouTube now offers AI tools within YouTube Studio to help creators brainstorm video ideas, generate thumbnails, and respond to followers with AI-assisted comments.
