Creators looking to play around with AI video tech are in for a Valentine's Day treat. YouTube Shorts has new AI video capabilities, thanks to Google's AI video model, Veo 2, being integrated into the video platform.
In September at its Made on YouTube event, YouTube first said Veo would add more firepower to its existing Dream Screen tools. This week, the company announced the new tools are now available for folks in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The new features let you create short, silent AI clips to include in your video, and you can record yourself in front of an AI-generated background image or video.
Google's AI policy when you use AI on Shorts says YouTube "collects your prompts, related content, and your feedback" to develop YouTube's services. All AI videos are marked with Google's SynthID, an invisible watermark that designates that it was created by generative AI.
AI has been slowly but steadily creeping into our daily social media experiences. Professional creators and businesses have seen AI-powered updates behind the scenes for some time, and now regular users are seeing more of the tech. When Meta integrated its AI across its social platforms, users quickly noticed (and complained about) how prevalent it was on Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp. TikTok, though busy dealing with other challenges, has also been rolling out AI avatars and other features for creators.
As AI video tech becomes more accessible and refined, it's likely to appear a lot more frequently in our video-first social media environments. YouTube integrating Google Veo is just one of the first examples of this, and creators' and users' responses to it will be telling about the future of AI-video on social.
If you want to try out the new YouTube AI video tools for yourself, here's how.
How to create AI backgrounds for YouTube Shorts
From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
To begin, open the YouTube app and tap the plus button to start creating a new Short.
Here's how you can create an AI-generated background in a new Shorts video.
- Go to the menu on the right and tap Green screen.
- Tap the star background (it should be the first or second option), and agree to the AI policy if prompted.
- Enter your prompt describing the kind of background you want. Don't worry about being too detailed -- the more, the better.
- Tap Create.
- Tap the variation you want or tap Try again to generate more options.
- Once you have an image you like, tap Use image or Create video.
- Record your video with the new AI background.
Once you're finished, tap the check mark and upload your video like normal. The AI-generated background videos aren't super long, so you might get cut off while you're recording. In my testing, I found it was easiest to break down my script into shorter clips and record several of them instead of recording in one take and risk getting cut off.
How to create AI clips with YouTube Shorts
To create an entirely new clip with AI, tap the plus sign to begin creating a new video and follow these steps.
- Go to your media library (tap Add on the lower left side).
- Tap the Create button at the top of the screen (it has a sparkle icon).
- Enter your prompt and tap Create.
- Choose from the variations it provides or tap Try again to generate more options.
- Tap Use image or Create video.
- Tap Continue, trim to desired length and tap Done.
For more, check out what we know about Adobe's AI video generator and ChatGPT's AI video generator, Sora.
English (US) ·