Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Bard is slowly becoming more useful after a lackluster launch. Now, the bot's YouTube integration has been conveniently upgraded so that it can analyze individual videos to provide viewers with specific information -- like key points or recipe ingredients -- without having to press play. This can be a very useful tool, but it can also make creators more concerned about the impact of AI-generated content on their audience’s viewing time.
While Bard already had the ability to analyze YouTube videos when the YouTube extension launched in September, now the chatbot can answer your questions specifically about the video content.
"We're taking the first steps towards Bard's ability to understand YouTube videos," the company wrote on Bard's update page. "For example, if you're looking for a video on how to make an olive oil cake, now you can also ask how many eggs the recipe in the first video calls for. We've heard that you want to engage more deeply with YouTube videos. So we're expanding the YouTube extension to understand some of the video content so you can have richer conversations with Bard."
Before the latest update, the YouTubeBard extension could only be used to find specific videos. For example, you can ask the chatbot to find interesting videos for you. You can now ask the chatbot specific questions about your video content. For example, if you see a place you like very much while watching a travel video, you can ask Bard where this place is.
Conversational tool responses are generated by large language models that leverage information from YouTube and the web. Users can ask questions about the video they are watching, and the conversation with the AI will take place while the video is playing. Comment summarization tools use generative artificial intelligence to organize discussion threads in comment sections and give users an overview of what people are saying.
Currently, the feature only exists as an opt-in lab experience, and it will take some work to get the answers you want. When I ask for the "full recipe" in the video, Bard can't generate anything. But when asking for "step-by-step instructions" in a subsequent prompt, I was given the entire recipe.
With so much friction, ATK's YouTube strategy probably isn't in any danger right now. But it’s not hard to imagine a future where this tool exists directly within YouTube. At that point, we can have another conversation about how the value of Bard’s search for video content will benefit (or harm) creators. Industry insiders, including Google, have yet to find the answer. If Google wants YouTube creators to continue producing content on its platform, it will eventually have to address this issue.