On its quest to stick AI in every nook and cranny it doesn’t belong, YouTube is testing out an AI-powered search tool. Because, as everyone knows, there’s nothing better than receiving text back from a search on a video-only platform. Our only reprieve? The test is limited to Premium subscribers in the US — and must be toggled on.
Somehow, YouTube search got worse
Google phrases the feature as “a new way to search on YouTube that feels more like a conversation,” as it pulls up relevant videos, Shorts, and text responses to (presumably) help you find what you’re looking for. It’s a pretty bizarre idea for YouTube specifically, and one that we hope doesn’t stick around. Honestly, we’d pay to turn it off.
While we haven’t had the displeasure of putting YouTube’s new AI powers to the test, The Verge is a little luckier. It reported that its test-search — “short history of the Apollo 11 moon landing” returned exactly what YouTube promised. A “bunch of text” summarising the mission before any actual footage surfaced. Rad?
“Then, the page included a video about the launch timestamped to a section about the launch day from a channel called “The Life Guide,” followed by galleries of videos under headers like “From Launch to Splashdown,” “Historic Footage and Behind-the-Scenes,” and a series of Shorts about “Moments on the Surface.”
The real question is why? Aside from being able to check it off as ‘another AI product up and running’ at the next board meeting. Anyone with access to YouTube can already find similar functionality inside of Google Search, with just as much vague mumbo jumbo relating to your query to pad out the ‘AI Overview’.
It’s possible (but improbable) that YouTube’s new AI-powered search will sway us by the time it extends its reach globally. We’ll give it its day in court, sure, but unless it can deliver videos faster, we doubt it’ll gain much traction over the old thing. It’s not like that fares all that much better, anyway.
