YouTube

Anyone who spends time on YouTube knows low quality AI generated videos are flooding the platform. A new global study by Kapwing looked at just how this slop and brainrot content (as it's known) is spreading across different countries and, perhaps more interestingly, how the biggest AI channels compare with traditional creators for both reach and earnings.

The report, which looked at more than fifteen thousand YouTube channels, arrives at a time when people are still arguing over the creative and ethical value of AI in video production. Film schools now teach classes on the use and ethics of generative tools, and brands are experimenting with AI in their creative work -- with mixed results.

The likes of Spotify have normalized the idea of looking back over the previous 12 months’ streaming habits. Spotify Wrapped, and other similar roundups from streaming music service have become something of a tradition, and now YouTube is getting in on the action.

While YouTube Music subscribers already have YouTube Music Recap, the is now a new YouTube Recap that is solely focused on videos. How has Google approached this?

Like Spotify, YouTube offers an annual summary of listening habits for individual users, but for 2025 there is a slight change. This time around, perhaps inevitably, artificial intelligence has been used.

The insertion of AI into just about every product and service has become predictable, but there is always the interesting question of whether its use is necessary, and if it brings any benefits. So, what is the verdict with YouTube Music?

Google is starting to experiment with new ways of giving users more control over their video watching experience. This time around, it is the feed feature which is getting something of an overhaul.

The main aim of the new ‘Your custom feed’ feature is to gives user greater control over the video recommendations they see. Although this new approach is still powered by an algorithm, there is at least some scope for tailoring how it works and – by extension – the content it throws up.

There are countless ways to waste time online, and scrolling your way through a never-ending selection of Shorts on YouTube is one of them. If you are someone who has found you have lost hours to the content served up by the platform, there is some good news.

A new digital well-being tool is starting to roll out that lets users set a time limit for the daily viewing of YouTube Shorts. While far from perfect, it may prove helpful for anyone who tends to lose track of time.

In an age of fragmented news, deepfakes present a real problem. YouTube is taking action to stop AI-generated videos being used to impersonate people.

The company has revealed details of its new Likeness Detection tool. For now, YouTube is targeting creators, giving them access to the tool – not only because creators are among those likely to be deepfaked, but also because the company will be hoping to be able to use their influence to hype up Likeness Detection.

Google has announced a series of updates and changes for YouTube, kicking off with a new-look user interface. The updated UI sees various buttons and control elements getting a visual refresh, but there are changes beyond the aesthetic.

An addition that will please many YouTube users is threaded replies. It is now not only possible to reply to comments on a video, but also to reply to those replies and have these comments visible in a tree structure. But there is still more.

There is a lot to feel frustrated about in relation to YouTube, but Google has announced a change that helps to squash one of its annoyances.

While in-video ads are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid – short of paying for the privilege – there is now a way to hide “end screens”. These short snippets at the end of the video you have just watched are a form of advertising used by creators to promote their other content.

It was inevitable that it would happen one day, and that day appears to have arrived. YouTube is getting stricter about how a Premium Family plan can be used.

The rules that apply to YouTube Family Premium are not changing, but YouTube is now seemingly enforcing restrictions that it was previously happy to turn a blind eye to.

Many people turn to AI to improve their writing, their photos, or their videos. YouTube has been doing the same, quietly enhancing the look of users’ uploaded videos through the use of artificial intelligence.

So, what is the problem? Many creators are upset not so much that their videos have been “enhanced” (although there is debate over whether what YouTube has done can actually be seen as an improvement) but that it was done without consent.

Google has announced that it is expanding the availability of the recently added cheaper tier of YouTube Premium. The YouTube Premium Lite package costs a little over half the price of the regular YouTube Premium subscription which should serve as a lure to potential customers who have been sitting on the fence.

The lower price, inevitably, means having to make some compromises, but YouTube Premium Lite delivers what most people will be looking for – a broadly ad-free experience on YouTube.

Following the lead of just about every website and social platform, YouTube is introducing comment threading. But before you get too excited about gaining the ability to view nested replies and being able to follow conversations more easily, there are a couple of quirks.

Firstly, this is – for now, at least – limited to the iOS and Android apps, so if you access YouTube via a web browser, you are out of luck. Secondly, this is an experiment so try not to get too attached to it.

YouTube has become overrun with mass-produced content generated by artificial intelligence. Known as AI slop, such content has spread cancerously across the video platform as pseudo creators seek to make a quick buck.

Now Google has had enough. Seeking to de-incentivize the creation of such content, it is updating YouTube policies so that it will be much more difficult to make money from AI slop.

Google-owned YouTube started testing a new “AI-powered search results carousel” to help users find what they are looking for faster. 

The new feature is only available on the mobile apps (iOS and Android) and only in English. Only a small, randomly selected group of YouTube Premium members in the United States who opt in through the YouTube Labs page will have access to this new feature.

Unless you can count yourself among those who have a premium subscription, using YouTube means having to endure ads. This is annoying, but it could be getting a whole lot worse.

And things are getting worse because of artificial intelligence. Google has announced Peak Points, a Gemini ai-powered feature that gives advertisers way to hit you with ads when you are most engaged with a video.