Word of the day: Tokenmaxxing. That's how Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced this year's Google I/O conference, a reference to the sheer mass of AI processing (we're talking quadrillions, folks) happening around the world.
It's a fact: Google has made a full pivot to AI. And depending on which of its dozens of products you use the most, it may or may not be taking over your life, too. But among a plethora of AI model updates and new, multimodal ways to generate synthetic videos announced today, Google unveiled only a few new upgrades for the YouTube lovers, the world's most-watched video platform.
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YouTube Shorts get Gemini Omni
Google unveiled its new AI world model, Gemini Omni, early on in the event, explaining that its new two-directional multimodal capabilities make it capable of "creating anything from any output."
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Omni will now be available in YouTube Shorts Remix, a platform creation tool that generates videos from existing content online. With Omni, users can remix their shorts with more advanced AI prompts. The company noted that Shorts made with Omni will automatically sport an AI-generated content label and related metadata, with links back to the original content.
In addition, YouTube is expanding its likeness detection tool, which "helps creators find content on YouTube where their face appears to be altered or generated by AI," to all creators 18 years or older.
Ask YouTube: New way to search
Google's second YouTube-related update isn't on the platform at all, but a new integrated, conversational way to search Google and YouTube at once. With Ask YouTube, Googlers will see relevant YouTube videos directly inside Google Search results.
Basically, when searching for specific or complex questions — like how to teach your child how to ride a bike, for example — users can watch tutorials or related videos right from the search page, and navigate through a tailored, interactive response generated by Google's AI Mode. Google said it "entirely reimagines" the search experience.
The feature is still being tested, but will roll out broadly across the U.S. this summer.