YouTube Adds a Handy AI Chatbot to Answer Questions about Videos

Google is on a roll when it comes to finding creative and helpful ways to introduce AI-powered features into its services. Like the “Help me write” feature for Gmail and Docs, and more recently, the “Create a list” tool for Google Keep. Well, now it’s YouTube’s turn, as the video-sharing platform finally gets an AI-powered chatbot in the form of an “Ask” button.

The Ask button lets you interact with a chatbot. Viewers can use it to ask video-related questions and receive real-time responses. The best aspect is that you don’t need to pause the video. You can ask for a summary of a video, discuss a specific section, if it is a product review then you can ask it to mention its pros and cons a product evaluation with pros and disadvantages, or if it is an educational video then you can translate it in simple language.

As mentioned by Android Authority, the feature is pretty responsive and the answers it provides are also quite accurate. Which leads them to speculate that the AI could be pre-analyzing the video even before you use the feature. This could likely be the case, as the Ask button won’t show up if you try to play a video that is not completely in English.

This feature is presently available to YouTube Premium users in the US aged 18 and up. It is only accessible via the YouTube app for Android till May 1st. However, You will need to enable this experimental feature in Settings. As previously said, it only works for videos in the English language, as for now. It also does not work with music videos.

We have previously seen AI tools and browser extensions that let you summarize or ask questions about the video. However, the ability to do so right from the app is so much more convenient. Plus, I think it will see a lot more appeal once rolled out to a wider audience. Especially among students who could use it to summarize long lectures.

On the other hand, it concerns me how it will affect the watch time of videos. People might just ask the AI for the information they need, and then close the video. This is something that YouTube and Google should have to think about as it will negatively affect the creators. But what are your thoughts about the new AI chatbot by YouTube? Do share your views on it in the comments below.