YouTube on Thursday announced a new set of AI detection tools to protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians and athletes, from having their likeness, including their face and voice, copied and used in other videos, TechCrunch reported. 

One key component of the new detection technology involved the expansion of YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which today identifies copyright-protected material. This system will be expanded to include new synthetic-singing identification technology to identify AI content that simulates someone else’s singing voice. Other detection technologies will be developed to identify when someone’s face is simulated with AI, the company says.

Also of note, YouTube is in the early stages of coming up with a solution to address the use of its content to train AI models. This has been an issue for some time, leading creators to complain that companies like Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, among others, have trained on their material without their consent or compensation.

YouTube posted the following on the YouTube Official Blog: 

AI is opening up a world of possibilities, empowering creators to express themselves in innovative and exciting ways. At YouTube, we’re committed to ensuring our creators and partners thrive in this evolving landscape. This means equipping them with the tools they need to harness AI’s creative potential while maintaining control over how their likeness, including their face and voice, is represented.

To achieve this, we’re developing new likeness management technology that will safeguard them and unlock new opportunities in the future.

Tools we’re building

First, we’ve developed new synthetic-singing identification technology within Content ID that will allow partners to automatically detect and manage AI-generated content on YouTube that simulates their singing voices. We’re refining this technology with our partners, with a pilot program planned for early next year.

Second, we’re actively developing new technology that will enable people from a variety of industries – from creators and actors to musicians and athletes — to detect and manage AI-generated content showing their faces on YouTube. Together with our recent privacy updates, this will create a robust set of tools to manage how AI is used to depict people on YouTube.

The Hollywood Reporter reported One of the side effects of generative artificial intelligence tools proliferating is a surge of misuse. Actors, musicians, athletes, digital creators and others are seeing their likenesses digitally copied or altered, sometimes for less-than-noble reasons.

In a blog post published Thursday morning, YouTube announced a pair of tools meant to detect and manage AI-generated content that uses their voice or likeness. The first tool, a “synthetic-singing identification technology” that will live within its existing Content ID system, and will “allow partners to automatically detect and manage AI-generated content on YouTube that simulates their singing voices.”

It is not immediately clear what creators will be able to do with the new tools, though Content ID gives rights holders a menu of options, from pulling it down, removing rights-impacted content, or splitting ad revenue.

In my opinion, it is going to take some time for famous people to hunt down AI-generated likenesses of themselves and get them taken down. Perhaps YouTube should speed up its intent to remove that type of content sooner rather than later.

On July 4, YouTube released an updated eraser tool for creators so they can easily remove any copyrighted music from their videos without any other audio such as dialog or sound effects, TechCrunch reported. 

YouTube chief Neal Mohan posted about the tool on X and said “Good news, creators: our updated Erase Song tool helps you easily remove copyright-claimed music from your video (while leaving the rest of your audio intact.).”

In the video, the company said that it had been testing the eraser tool for a while, but it wasn’t as accurate in removing a copyrighted song. It noted that the new tool uses an AI-powered algorithm to specifically detect and remove that song without impacting other audio in the clip.

On its support page, YouTube still warns that, at times, the algorithm might fail to remove just the song.

The Verge reported YouTube has launched an improved eraser tool that lets creators remove copyrighted music from their videos while keeping other audio intact. The revamped tool, which was released this week, was first reported by TechCrunch.

The Erase Song feature lets creators silence copyrighted music in their content, the company announced in a video. The tool had been previously been in place as a beta features, but it wasn’t always accurate.

The updated Erase Song feature uses an “AI-powered algorithm” to help it more precisely identify and remove copyrighted songs without affecting other audio on a particular clip. That’s the goal, at least.

YouTube’s support page says the Erase Song tool “might not work if the song is hard to remove,” so muting the audio instead can help to remove a content ID claim against a video.

Engadget reported when creators get a copyright claim for music, YouTube gives them the option to trim out the affected segment or to replace the song with an approved one in its library. Creators can’t monetize that particular video until they resolve the claim.

The website has been testing its “erase song” tool for a while, but in the video, the company says it hasn’t been as accurate as it would like. To solve that problem, it redesigned the tool so that it now uses an AI-powered algorithm to accurately detect and remove copyrighted music from videos.

Still, YouTube admits that the tool might not always work. If a song is particularly hard to remove, presumably due to audio quality or the presence of other sounds while it’s playing, creators may have to resort to other options. Creators will be able to put that part of their video through the new erase tool.

The website’s upgraded erase song tool will be available in YouTube Studio in the coming weeks.

In my opinion, the Erase Song option was a good choice for YouTube. It means that videos posted on YouTube don’t have to be entirely stricken from the website – so long as the Erase Song feature works.

Following the ad blocker crackdown, YouTube is explicitly going after third-party — often mobile — apps that let viewers skip advertising, 9TO5Google reported.

YouTube announced today that it is “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.”

Users will see a “The following content is not available on this app” error message or experience “buffering issues” when they try to play content though those alternative clients.

“We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service.”, YouTube wrote.

According to 9TO5Google, YouTube Premium, which hit 100 million subscribers in February, is offered as the solution for those that “prefer an entirely ad-free experience.”

Going forward, it will crack down on clients that violate these policies: “…when we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate actions to protect our platform, creators, and viewers.”

The Verge reported that YouTube is bringing its ad blocker fight to mobile. In an update on Monday, YouTube writes that users accessing videos through a third-party ad blocking app may encounter buffering issues or see an error that reads, “The following content is not available on this app.”

Last year, YouTube “launched a global effort” to encourage users to allow ads while watching videos or upgrade to YouTube Premium. It also began disabling videos for users with ad blocking extension enabled.

But now, YouTube says its policies don’t allow “third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership.”  The block targets third-party apps that use YouTube’s API to get videos interruption-free. AdGuard says its not affected by the change since the app doesn’t use YouTube’s API.

According to The Verge, to get around this, YouTube once again suggests signing up for the ad-free YouTube Premium. This likely won’t come as pleasant news to all who watch YouTube through ad blocking apps, but it doesn’t look like YouTube is backing down in its battle against ad blockers anytime soon.

ArsTechnica reported YouTube is putting third-party ad-blocking on notice. An ominous post on the official YouTube Community Help forum titled “Enforcement on Third Party Apps” says the company is “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.”

Google would really like it if you all paid for YouTube Premium.

According to ArsTechnica, another popular option is “NewPipe,” a from-scratch YouTube player that follows the open source ethos and is available on the FOSS-only store F-Droid. NewPipe wants a lightweight client without the proprietary code and million permissions that YouTube needs, but it also blocks ads.

Personally, I’ve been using YouTube Premium for a while now and it works well. It is something you have to pay for. I recommend it if you really don’t want to see YouTube ads.

More than ever before, viewer are turning to the largest screen in their homes — their TVs — to watch their favorite YouTube content from dogs, to video games, to sports highlights and more, YouTube posted on their Official Blog.

And while watching television has historically been considered a passive experience, one where you can sit back and enjoy your favorite programs we’re building one that is uniquely YouTube that gives viewers the opportunity to engage with the content they’re watching, even on the big screen. As watch time on TVs has grown to more than 1 billion hours per day, we’re faced with a fun challenge: How can we bring familiar YouTube features and interactivity to the living room while ensuring that the video remains at the center of the experience?

Finding the balance

While we wanted to introduce more interactivity for viewers, we need to ensure that the primary video actions (pause, rewind, fast forward) remained easily accessible and intuitive – after all, content is the core of YouTube.

Finding this balance meant simplifying user interactions to accommodate the remote control, while simultaneously making sure the new design would be applicable to a wide range of use cases.

What we learned from our users was: 

The new design works for features that require equal or more attention than the video itself (e.g. comments, description, live chat) but obscuring the video would be detrimental to the viewing experience.

We need to continue to prioritize simplicity over the introduction of additional lightweight controls.

A one size fits all solution may not be the best approach, as features such as live chat and video description benefit from different levels of immersion.

The Verge reported YouTube is constantly tinkering with its app design across different platforms and screen sizes, and shared the latest changes coming to its TV-optimized app. There’s a clear focus on making the viewing experience more interactive and giving greater prominence to chapters, comments, and video descriptions — without getting in the way of the video you’re trying to watch.

The new new shrinks the video down slightly to make space for the description, comments, and other elements around it. It’s not YouTube’s new default look, since many people will still prefer a full-screen layout. But you can easily click into the more interactive interface from the standard video player screen.

By shifting interactive features to the right side, YouTube is also making a renewed effort to bring shopping to the TV screen. You’ll see a “products in this video” section appear whenever creators include what’s being featured in their content. But YouTube hasn’t quite reached the stage of letting you complete an entire transaction from your TV; instead, the app will display a QR code that you can scan to finish buying an item on your phone. Not exactly seamless.

In my opinion, it appears that YouTube might be hoping to become the next Home Shopping Network. Right now, the best YouTube can do is post a QR code for those who want to buy something they saw in a video that they are currently watching.

YouTube is launching two initiatives to make it easier for users to watch the latest news stories and to help news organizations create Shorts, TechCrunch reported.

The first initiative involves the introduction of what the company calls an “immersive watch page experience for news stories,” that pulls together content from authoritative sources. The second is the launch of the Shorts Innovation Program for News, which will offer financial grants and other support to news orgs creating short-form video on the platform.

YouTube posted in its Official Blog about it’s plans for news. From the blog post:

YouTube has long been a home for news viewers to learn more about the world and the news industry to reach them through innovative digital formats. Over the years, we’ve focused on developing a suite of products to help people easily find content from authoritative news sources, like our Top News and Breaking News shelves. Now, more than ever, we remain committed to connecting people to high-quality information they can trust, particularly in times of elections, unrest, and natural disasters.

In today’s digital news landscape, viewers are increasingly seeking out many different types of content, and we’re seeing newsrooms and journalists evolve to meet that need. Now, we’re sharing two initiatives to further improve the news watching journey on YouTube.

First, we’re introducing an immersive watch page experience for news stories on YouTube. The news watch page will pull together content from authoritative sources across video on demand, live streams, podcasts, and Shorts, allowing viewers to deep dive and explore multiple sources and angles. All on one watch page, people will be able to find relevant long-form video, live coverage, and Shorts to quickly catch up…

…Additionally, we’re launching the Shorts Innovation Program for News – an initiative to strengthen news organizations’ short-form video capabilities through financial grants and specialist support. To start, we’re working with over 20 organizations across 10 countries, providing a total of $1.6 million USD. Participants are selected based on having a strong existing long-form video presence on YouTube, but we are looking to improve and expand their Shorts news content creation.

Over the next year, YouTube specialists will work with news organizations, including Univision in the U.S., AFP in France, and Mediacorp in Singapore on Shorts content strategy and video production best practices…

Gizmodo reported that YouTube’s effort to streamline the news features on its platform comes as Meta’s Threads app has vocally rejected actively promoting news on the platform, addressed the possibility of promoting news on Threads after the apps launch, saying the company will not encourage news-driven content.

“Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads – they have on Instagram as well to some extent – but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote when the Twitter clone was launched, Gizmodo reported.

He reiterated Meta’s decision in a Threads post last week, writing: “We won’t do anything to get between people and content from accounts they follow, regardless of whether or not the content is news, but won’t proactively recommend news to people who don’t seek it out.”

It seems to me that YouTube is very interested in boosting news for people who want to watch it on their platform. YouTube’s blog post indicates that they are making an effort to ensure that credible news sources will be selected for this project. That’s probably not going to please everyone, but it’s a good start.

YouTube will remove content that promotes “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective” or which “discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment,” the video platform announced today, The Verge reported.

According to The Verge, the enforcement comes as YouTube is attempting to streamline its medical moderation guidelines based on what it’s learned while attempting to tackle misinformation around topics like covid-19, vaccines, and reproductive health.

YouTube posted on the YouTube Official Blog an Inside YouTube titled: “A long term vision for YouTube’s medical misinformation policies”. It was written by Dr. Garth Graham and Matt Halperin. Here is part of the YouTube blog post:

“In the years since we began our efforts to make YouTube a destination for high-quality health content, we’ve learned critical lessons about developing Community Guidelines in line with local and global health authority guidance on topics that pose serious real-world risks, such as misinformation on COVID-19, vaccines, reproductive health, harmful substances, and more. We’re taking what we’ve learned so far about the most effective ways to tackle medical misinformation to simplify our approach for creators, viewers, and partners…”

“…Moving forward, YouTube will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories – Prevention, Treatment, and Denial. These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO).”

Here’s what the framework will look like:

Prevention misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention and transmission of specific health conditions, and on the safety and efficacy of approved vaccines. For example, this encompasses content that promotes a harmful substance for disease prevention.

Treatment misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on treatments for specific health conditions, including promoting specific harmful substances or practices. Examples include content that encourages unproven remedies in place of seeking medical attention for specific conditions, like promoting cesium chloride as a treatment for cancer.

Denial misinformation: We will remove content that disputes the existence of specific health conditions. This covers content that denies people have died from COVID-19.

YouTube continued: Starting today, and ramping up in the coming weeks, we will be removing content that promotes cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment. This includes content that promotes unproven treatments in place of approved care or as a guaranteed cure, and treatments that have been deemed harmful by health authorities. For instance, a video that claims “garlic cures cancer,” or “take vitamin C instead of radiation therapy” would be removed.

CNN reported that YouTube’s Dr. Garth Graham said that cancer treatment fits YouTube’s updated medical misinformation framework because the disease poses a high public health risk and is a topic prone to frequent misinformation, and because there is a stable consensus about safe treatments from local and global health authorities.

YouTube says its restrictions on cancer treatment misinformation will go into effect today, and enforcement will ramp up in the coming weeks. The company has previously said it uses both human and automated moderation to review videos and their context.

In my opinion, it is good that YouTube wants to takedown videos that are posting misinformation about cancer treatments. People seeking information about cancer treatment on YouTube should not have to see the videos that are clearly misinformation.