Over the past year, YouTube has sent a clear message to its creator community: We hope you like generative AI, because you’re about to see a lot more of it. Products from Google Gemini and similar platforms have been integrated throughout the YouTube experience, opening up new creative possibilities for channel owners.
YouTube’s AI-forward strategy has drawn significant criticism. Creators have cried foul as LLMs have scraped videos without consent, surreptitiously upscaled existing content, and flooded YouTube with a deluge of slop. If the plan to make AI ubiquitous continues at its current pace, the complaints will only grow louder.
The latest bulletin from YouTube’s Culture and Trends team tells a different story. After partnering with NRG to conduct a survey of U.S.-based users, YouTube found that most of the respondents held positive attitudes about AI, and some of them have found creative ways to employ the emerging technology.
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The survey went out to 694 “video posters” — people who have uploaded video content over the past 12 months. Within that sample, 72% of respondents said they use AI on video and images, and 61% said they’re interested in using AI to insert depictions of their likeness into their content.
YouTube highlighted that desire as a positive use case for generative AI tools. The report mentioned conceits like “hug my younger self,” in which creators generate past versions of themselves and interact with those facsimiles.
“For some AI experimenters, the technology is a way to play with the different aspects of their self-identity and imagine alternate selves,” reads the report. “By using it to visualize their complex emotions, people turn knotty feelings into cathartic imagery that others can empathize with.”
Of course, YouTube has ulterior motives behind its decision to champion generative AI. The Culture and Trends team should be expected to boost the products YouTube is rolling out, even if some creators might have dissenting ideas.
Even with that caveat, the results still have an unexpected quality. Criticisms of AI get lots of attention, but YouTube is showing that there are still people with positive attitudes hiding among the skeptics.
