A new feature that lets you create an AI avatar with your likeness is now live on YouTube. First announced in a blog post earlier this year, avatars are designed to be used in Shorts (provided you still allow them to show up), allowing you to insert yourself into video content in a way that YouTube deems to be safe and secure. YouTube's approach to combatting the AI sloppification of the internet and the proliferation of deepfakes appears to be adding more and more AI features to its platform, framing this latest addition as a tool that gives creators more control of their digital identities. Any video generated using an avatar will feature YouTube's AI disclosure and include visible watermarks and labels like SynthID and C2PA. YouTube has published a pretty in-depth explainer on how to create and use an avatar in either the YouTube or YouTube Create app, but here's a brief summary of how to do it using the former. Once you've opened AI Playground, you'll be taking a "live selfie" that also records your voice. You can then preview your photorealistic virtual self and either proceed with it or redo the process if you're unhappy with anything. Creating an avatar in the YouTube Create app is broadly similar, but you have to navigate to the My Avatar homepage first. YouTube recommends that you hold your phone at eye level and keep yourself centered as much as possible. Lighting is also important, as is ensuring your whole face is visible, you're in a quiet area, and there's nobody else in the background. You also have to be the account owner to create an avatar, and over the age of 18. Once you have an avatar you like, you simply type in a prompt and wait for the AI to generate a video, which according to 9to5Google can be up to eight seconds long. Alternatively, YouTube will also let you add an avatar to existing "eligible" Shorts by tapping "Remix" and then "Reimagine" with your avatar selected. Avatars can be deleted or retaken whenever you like, as can any video with your avatar in it. You can also limit who's able to remix your videos, but deleting a video with your avatar in it won't also delete the original video, or that avatar from your account. YouTube will automatically delete any avatar that hasn't been used to create new video content for three years. The new avatar feature will roll out gradually, and is the latest in a long line of AI-centric tools and updates YouTube has added to the platform in the last year, including automatic upscaling for low-res videos, automatic editing for creators and an AI-generated carousel for search results. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/google-introduces-ai-generated-avatars-to-youtube-shorts-140222368.html?src=rss
Those 90-second YouTube ads you saw? YouTube says they don't exist
Repeated reporting is beginning to cohere into a trackable narrative.
These clustered signals are the repeated pieces of reporting that formed the theme. Read them as the evidence layer beneath the broader narrative.
YouTube denies running 90-second unskippable ads on TVs, but multiple users are reporting the same experience. So what's actually going on?
Open the article-level analysis that gives this theme its evidence, timing, and scenario framing.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
Multiple trusted reports are pointing to the same directional technology shift, suggesting the market should read this as a category signal rather than isolated headline activity.
The ongoing scrutiny of AI-generated content for children by experts and regulators is likely to accelerate compliance measures within major tech companies, especially YouTube.
Move one level up to the topic page when you want broader market context around this theme.
These adjacent themes share category context or entity overlap with the current narrative.
A new feature that lets you create an AI avatar with your likeness is now live on YouTube. First announced in a blog post earlier this year, avatars are designed to be used in Shorts (provided you still allow them to show up), allowing you to insert yourself into video content in a way that YouTube deems to be safe and secure. YouTube's approach to combatting the AI sloppification of the internet and the proliferation of deepfakes appears to be adding more and more AI features to its platform, framing this latest addition as a tool that gives creators more control of their digital identities. Any video generated using an avatar will feature YouTube's AI disclosure and include visible watermarks and labels like SynthID and C2PA. YouTube has published a pretty in-depth explainer on how to create and use an avatar in either the YouTube or YouTube Create app, but here's a brief summary of how to do it using the former. Once you've opened AI Playground, you'll be taking a "live selfie" that also records your voice. You can then preview your photorealistic virtual self and either proceed with it or redo the process if you're unhappy with anything. Creating an avatar in the YouTube Create app is broadly similar, but you have to navigate to the My Avatar homepage first. YouTube recommends that you hold your phone at eye level and keep yourself centered as much as possible. Lighting is also important, as is ensuring your whole face is visible, you're in a quiet area, and there's nobody else in the background. You also have to be the account owner to create an avatar, and over the age of 18. Once you have an avatar you like, you simply type in a prompt and wait for the AI to generate a video, which according to 9to5Google can be up to eight seconds long. Alternatively, YouTube will also let you add an avatar to existing "eligible" Shorts by tapping "Remix" and then "Reimagine" with your avatar selected. Avatars can be deleted or retaken whenever you like, as can any video with your avatar in it. You can also limit who's able to remix your videos, but deleting a video with your avatar in it won't also delete the original video, or that avatar from your account. YouTube will automatically delete any avatar that hasn't been used to create new video content for three years. The new avatar feature will roll out gradually, and is the latest in a long line of AI-centric tools and updates YouTube has added to the platform in the last year, including automatic upscaling for low-res videos, automatic editing for creators and an AI-generated carousel for search results. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/google-introduces-ai-generated-avatars-to-youtube-shorts-140222368.html?src=rss
Google says this update builds on the earlier reading mode, which sat in a side panel.
Google has introduced new AI shopping features in India across the Gemini app, AI Mode in Search, and Circle to Search. Users can shop more efficiently with seamless transitions, product comparisons, and easy identification of items across platforms.
