By Kayla DeKraker
YouTube’s latest update moves the platform deeper into the world of artificial intelligence with a new feature that allows creators to produce Shorts using AI-generated versions of themselves.
While the dangers of AI deepfakes have long been discussed, YouTube’s new feature shifts the conversation around the tech, making it something that could benefit creators.
“This year you’ll be able to create a Short using your own likeness, produce games with a simple text prompt and experiment with music,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced in a blog post. “Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.”
Although there is a place for AI, Mohan condemned AI “slop.”
“The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka ‘AI slop,’” he said. “As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time.”
Related: 2 Billion People Watch YouTube a Month
He explained that YouTube is “actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content” to “reduce the spread of low-quality AI content.”
While working to remove the slop, Mohan simultaneously leans into the good side of AI and the positivity it can bring.
“AI will act as a bridge between curiosity and understanding…Ultimately, we’re focused on ensuring AI serves the people who make YouTube great: the creators, artists, partners, and billions of viewers looking to capture, experience and share a deeper connection to the world around them,” he said.
On Instagram, Mohan emphasized YouTube’s goals for 2026:
🌟 Reinventing Entertainment: Creators are the new stars & studios
💛 Building the best place for kids and teens
💰 Powering the creator economy
✨ Supercharging and safeguarding creativity
“This inflection point requires ambitious bets, and @youtube has the scale, community, and technological investments to lead the creative industry into the next era,” he wrote.
So far, it looks like AI will play a major role in fulfilling those plans.
But YouTube’s AI integration isn’t surprising. The tech has been intermingling with social media for a while now, a trend that some people have mixed feelings about, especially as chatbots learn from social platforms.
“If you looked at the top 10 domains that were baked into responses by ChatGPT, 3 of the 10 most commonly cited domains were social networks,” analyst Max Willens said.
Emarketer reported, “Reddit was the top source for genAI responses, contributing in some form to 40.1% of replies to chatbot queries, according to a June 2025 Semrush study. Wikipedia (26.3% of genAI citations) and YouTube (23.5%) came in second and third, per Semrush.”
While YouTube isn’t shying away from AI, it remains to be seen how including the tech on the platform impacts creators and viewers in the long run.
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