YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan Shares The Platform’s AI Mantra At Davos
YouTube utilises artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance human creativity rather than using it for their replacement, said Neal Mohan YouTube’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday.
Mohan said, "Today, YouTube is in a similar revolution (just like) AI, wherein advanced technology is poised to enhance the democratisation of the creative process. Several instances can be cited to illustrate this point, (including) our collaboration with Google DeepMind."
Google DeepMind is a research lab that was developed in 2010 to explore and develop AI models, such as Gemini, FunSearch, and Imagen Google acquired the laboratory in 2014. DeepMind’s AI models have made significant breakthroughs in the field of AI research and its practical applications.
"We are playing around with new AI tools," revealed Mohan.
Furthermore, he shed light on YouTube’s Dream Screen, a new feature introduced to its short-form video that allows users to leverage AI tools to create reels. He said this instant tool can enhance users’ creativity.
Founded in 2005, YouTube has over 2.51 billion monthly active users in 2023.
Speaking on YouTube's popularity, the CEO said billions of creative people across the world had made YouTube their home. He emphasised that the platform has diverse content creators that range from foreign Youtubers, Bollywood personalities and other common individual who can attract viewers.
According to reports, the Google-owned platform has nearly 122 million active users and roughly five billion videos are watched on the channel every day. Mohan said that YouTube's popularity stems from being the pioneering digital platform that started decades back granting creators an unrestricted stage, enabling them opportunities to show their talent without any limitations imposed by gatekeepers.
AI Advertising
Mohan said distribution is the key starting point for YouTube as it is crucial to establish a solid audience base before capitalising on the platform, as YouTube primarily operates as an advertiser-centric platform. "Our monetisation is largely based on advertising as creators earn their income by engaging with an audience and we enhance this process by incorporating our advertising products."
AI supports YouTube's advertising, stressed the CEO.
"It is worth mentioning that AI plays a significant role within Google and YouTube, particularly in the ad domain, wherein we constantly introduce innovative AI solutions to enhance ROI for advertisers, brands and CMOs." - Neal Mohan YouTube’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
“The most exciting aspect for these stakeholders is the opportunity to connect with an engaged audience on YouTube, facilitated by our AI-driven machine learning algorithms," shared Mohan.
Guardrail
Mohan highlighted the significance of provenance and watermarking in addressing copyright infringement within the AI domain. He mentioned ongoing efforts at YouTube to implement safer solutions, with Content ID currently serving as a system for copyright owners to identify and manage their protected content on the platform.
While Mohan spoke about the platform and its liberty to creators, he failed to address the case of inappropriate content found on the platform, recently the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) directed the video streaming platform YouTube to remove all videos that portray indecency, involving minors.
