If you were wishing you could have more AI features in your YouTube app, Google has announced yet another artificial intelligence feature to the platform as of today. Called Ask YouTube this new feature gives users the opportunity to find specific content on the platform by searching for it using question-based prompts that use natural language.
So, for instance, using this new feature you can use Ask YouTube to find something general like how to clear the cache on a Roku, or something specific like what kinds of reviews the movie Elysium received in 2013. Following your query, the app will then not only surface videos that address the question, but also queue up the relevant part of video results as well so you can jump right in to see the answers.
In a briefing CEO Sundar Pichai said Ask YouTube will make “information much more digestible and easy to navigate.”
Ask YouTube is available now for Premium members in the US aged 18 and up on the service’s dedicated new features page, and will be rolling out to everyone else “soon.”
An extension of Google’s AI overviews
This feature may feel familiar
Though this is the first time we’re seeing AI-powered natural language video search natively on YouTube, this isn’t an entirely new feature. If you have AI Overviews turned on in Google search, results will often include links to relevant portions of tutorials and how-to videos from YouTube that can be played directly from the search results page. And while you may or may not get a video as part of these AI overviews, Ask YouTube is at least a little bit distinct in that it ensures that you get a video answer to your question, if that is what you are specifically looking for.
It is unclear exactly where this feature will live on the YouTube app, but its rollout is in line with Google’s larger effort to cram as many AI features into its products as possible, even if the features aren’t entirely new or necessary.
