YouTube offers more AI for makers’ short videos

The new tools target creators and consumers in a broad generative AI push.

- BY ALEXANDRA S. LEVINE

NEW YouTube tools are powered by Veo 3 Fast. It can create video and audio from a phone's text prompt.

YouTube rolled out a slew of generative artificial intelligence products aimed at a broad audience, an effort from the video platform to show its massive investments in AI are bearing fruit.

The features, announced Tuesday, go well beyond the standard AI editing tools that YouTube and its social media rivals have introduced in recent years. Many of the latest tools are tailored specifically to creators and shortform segments known as YouTube Shorts, a sign that YouTube is taking ever-bigger swings to compete with ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc.

Several of its new offerings are powered by Veo 3 Fast, a Google DeepMind model that can in seconds generate realistic video and audio, including dialogue and sound effects, from a simple text prompt on a phone.

"Twenty years ago, YouTube launched with the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to create and find a global stage," Johanna Voolich, YouTube's chief product officer, said in a blog post Tuesday timed to the company's Made on YouTube event in New York.