I don’t know why platforms are so dedicated to pushing people away from their own creativity, and towards AI-generated content instead, but that is seemingly the trend of the moment. Which, if anything, is only going to flood each app with more AI slop, but…
Late last week, YouTube announced its latest AI feature, with Shorts creators now able to generate an alternative ending to a Short, by generating it with AI.
Called “Extend with AI,” the process uses the existing “Cut” option for YouTube, which is designed for responses to Shorts, but adds an AI element.
As explained by YouTube:
“This new feature gives you creative suggestions to help you add a new segment to an eligible Short. All you need to do is pick a moment from a Short, select a suggested prompt that describes what you want to happen next, and create a new segment that you can use for your own Short. Your remixed creation becomes a new Short that you can share, while the original creator’s video remains the same.”
So you can generate an alternative ending for a Short, instead of remixing it or replying to the original creator/clip. And you seemingly can’t even create your own ending, with YouTube’s system giving you options on what it can generate for you via AI.
Which you can then post as your own content. Right.
YouTube says that most Shorts that are opted into video remix features are now eligible to be remixed via Extend with AI.
“To create, start by tapping ‘Remix’ from an eligible Short, then select ‘Extend with AI.’ Choose a video segment up to 5 seconds in length, then pick from the list of suggested prompts. The prompts are generated based on the video you choose to remix, so they offer creative suggestions tailored to your unique content.”
So again, you don’t even have input into what the AI generation will be, so you literally have nothing to do with the creation of this alternative ending, other than a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style AI video process.
“When you’re in the preview screen after your draft has been generated, you can add music from our curated list of audio tracks. You can also go back into the camera to add more videos by tapping the back arrow and then re-ordering clips in the editing screen. Most videos generated using Extend with AI will be around 8 seconds or less.”
Through this, you’ll end up with your own Short, which is attributed to you (but linked back to the creator’s original video), which you can then share in the app.
So you can effectively be a YouTube creator without ever capturing any video footage yourself, you just need to generate clips, and expand existing content, with AI generators that will come up with alternative depictions for you.
Is that a good thing? Is that really contributing much to the broader creator ecosystem?
I guess YouTube will be hoping that this sparks a new form of viral content, with users generating their own, alternative versions of creator content, which then take on a life of their own.
But much like Meta’s recently announced “Vibes” AI video feed, I don’t see why this would be popular, nor engaging, as it’s not creative, in the human sense, nor reflective of another person’s vision or experience, or anything. It’s just point and click, generate video, post content.
Which is what this feels like, a more homogenized variation of “creativity,” where the term “content” becomes more representative of the output, as opposed to art.
It’s just stuff, and AI tools like this do little more than fill our feeds with random, computer-generated mutations of things that look like something else.
And again, the question remains, “is that a good thing?”
Seems that we’re going to find out, whether we like it or not.
YouTube says that “Extend with AI” will be gradually rolled out to all countries outside of the E.U. and U.K. “over the coming months.”
