YouTube expands AI search and custom feeds, offering Google-style answers and creator tools

The useful part

YouTube Platforms like YouTube have used machine learning tech for years to build your social media feeds. Now, in the age of generative AI, YouTube is building on that technological foundation and introducing a new way to use AI to build custom video feeds, the company announced at Made on YouTube on Wednesday. You will soon be able to build multiple custom feeds of recommended videos by prompting YouTube like you would a chatbot, using plain language.

How it works

• YouTube's experimental Ask YouTube tool lets you search for videos with AI, and it's expanding its capabilities.
• You can click on a video that the tool surfaces and continue asking questions on the video's watch page.
• It is somewhat similar to how a chatbot can search the web for information, compile it and cite its sources.
• With Ask YouTube, we expect watch time to remain steady or improve," a YouTube spokesperson told CNET.
• Many child safety researchers and advocates are worried about social media sites adding more AI features.

What to take from it

So you can have feeds dedicated to specific subjects, like photography or college football, and YouTube creates dedicated tabs on your homepage for each feed. We've already seen how AI features can harm kids, such as in the case of Reuters' 2025 investigation that found Meta's AI chatbots on Instagram would engage in sexual and romantic roleplay with children. Similar to the decline in traffic that digital publishers have seen with the rise of generative AI, there is a risk that YouTube's AI-enhanced search may eliminate the need for people to click on video links and consume original content.

Example or evidence

• It uses that information to build comparison tables, among other things.
• YouTube has been an ongoing project for its parent company, Google, in recent years.
• While creators have been using AI to edit and create videos, leading to an onslaught of AI slop, the platform has been integrating new tools powered by Google's Gemini models.
• Now, YouTube is focusing its AI efforts on personalization, both for viewers and creators, to ultimately keep us scrolling and monetize content.

Details worth keeping

YouTube Is Expanding Its AI Search to Be More Like Google's. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Ask YouTube is an AI-powered search experience.

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