YouTube will soon allow content creators to create short videos that look like their own artificial intelligence

YouTube Shorts viewers may soon see AI versions of their favorite creators when they scroll through their feeds. YouTube CEO Neil Mohan announced on Wednesday that creators will soon be able to create short videos using their own photos.

“This year you will be able to create short videos using your own photo, produce games with simple text, and experiment with music,” Mohan wrote in his annual letter. “Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.”

Short videos, which Mohan said now average 200 billion views per day, are one of the most popular media on YouTube. The company continues to invest in Shorts videos to maintain viewership. Although YouTube did not share additional details about these similarities, the new capability will join the platform’s existing AI tools for short videos, including the ability to create AI clips, AI stickers, AI automatic dubbing, and more.

YouTube will also provide creators with new tools to manage the use of their likeness in AI-generated content, according to Mohan.

While YouTube will allow content creators to feature their own images in their videos, the Google-owned platform recently launched technology to prevent others from using it. Last October, YouTube rolled out similarity detection technology for eligible content creators to identify AI-generated content that features similarity to creators, such as their faces and voices. Creators can then request the removal of their AI-generated content.

As with other social media platforms, YouTube has dealt with the spread of artificial intelligence. Mohan says the company works to maintain a high-quality viewing experience.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve learned not to impose any preconceived notions on the creator ecosystem,” Mohan wrote. “Today, weird trends like ASMR and watching other people playing video games are mainstream. But with that openness comes a responsibility to maintain the high-quality viewing experience that people want. To limit the spread of low-quality AI content, we are actively building on our well-established systems that have had great success in combating spam and click fraud, and reducing the spread of repetitive, low-quality content.”

YouTube is also set to expand short videos into new formats, including photo posts, which are already very popular on TikTok and Instagram Reels.