this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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83
YouTube Tests AI Overviews in Search Results (www.macrumors.com)
submitted 6 days ago by moe90@feddit.nl to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 55 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I'm so tired of useless AI "features" plaguing every facet of the internet. I get that there are uses for this kinda stuff, but literally everything is not the answer. Especially since 70% of the AI features they have added to YouTube are either useless or inadequate for what they say they do. My favorite is the AI summary of the comment section saying some stupid shit like "the comments talk about the jokes in the video." Like... How is that helpful?

At this rate it almost seems like they are trying to stop people from even using YouTube with how much information and summaries they are trying to give you without ever interacting with the video itself.

[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The worst part about the comment summaries is that bots are using the summary to come up with incredibly generic comments, which are then liked and give them high visibility. You can tell who they are due to the suggestive photo, and the 50% chance of nudity in their profile, and the 100% chance of that profile containing a link to a cam site (that will presumably scam you in some way). If you watch new, popular videos, there is almost certainly a porn bot in the comments. YouTube doesn't seem to give a shit either, considering that it seems like at least half of these accounts are using the same profile image.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 8 points 6 days ago (4 children)

According to YouTube, the video results carousel will use AI to highlight clips from videos that "will be most helpful for your search query," which essentially means that it will take clips from videos and play them right in results, so people may not need to click into a video to find the information they're looking for.

Google uses AI overviews for Google Search, but the YouTube version will differ. AI won't summarize videos, and will simply pull clips from them. It is not clear the AI-selected clips will encourage users to watch a full video, or cause fewer people to engage with videos, but AI integration into Google Search has impacted traffic to websites.

For the use case of looking for some tutorial on a thing or a recipe or something and having the option of skipping straight past all the watchtime-boosting filler content and straight to the answer this seems like a decent solution if it works semi-reliably. I imagine since they are pulling full transcripts for subtitle generation already it's just a text search with a timecode.

I will also buy into a setting to get past "Hey guys, welcome to my video!" and "Please like and subscribe" automatically, but I doubt Google is into that.

[–] kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com 9 points 6 days ago

I will also buy into a setting to get past "Hey guys, welcome to my video!" and "Please like and subscribe" automatically, but I doubt Google is into that.

SponsorBlock!

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Wait, they're trying to implement a feature that would let people see the relevant part of a video without clicking anything?

It's going to be a few hours until they're being yelled at by higher ups, because I doubt they told them about that part when they pitched this. That feature would actively and noticably lower their ad revenue and information gathering.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 2 points 6 days ago

I mean, they're doing it to everybody else, so...

[–] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago

I will also buy into a setting to get past "Hey guys, welcome to my video!" and "Please like and subscribe" automatically, but I doubt Google is into that.

They did the exact opposite to this. If the person in the video tells you to subscribe, the subscribe button will play an animation to get your attention.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

watchtime-boosting filler content

Wonder whose responsible for the policies that created that? :D

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago

I‘m testing watching less Youtube and by „testing“ I mean the platform is literally slowly pushing me away. Everything about it just gets progressively worse.

[–] loaf@sh.itjust.works 32 points 6 days ago

Garbage using garbage to produce garbage.

[–] suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Calling it 'search' is basically propaganda at this point. The results have been fucked for ages.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 1 points 6 days ago

It’s basically just an alternate home feed with the first 2 videos mildly related to what you were looking for. The rest are there to distract you from getting stuff done. The whole point is to boost engagement, watch time and all the other social media cancer terms.