YouTube Looks to Creators (and Their Data) to Win in the AI Era
The video giant, turning 20, tries to keep the content spigot flowing while appeasing its army of broadcasters and copyright holders.
Illustration: Adam Ferriss for Bloomberg
Bloomberg News reporter Mark Bergen charted YouTube’s turbulent journey to become the sleeping giant of modern media in his book Like, Comment, Subscribe (Viking, 2022). Since then, a boom in artificial intelligence has presented the video giant with one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in its 20-year lifespan. In this Next Chapter, Bergen looks at what’s ahead for YouTube in the era of AI.
Amjad Hanif, a YouTube vice president, recently met with Egyptian influencer Farah Medhat, who has a huge following overseas. Medhat’s second-largest audience on YouTube is in South Korea, where fans watch her Arabic videos with subtitles. Hanif believes his company’s artificial intelligence will soon make Medhat a fluent Korean speaker onscreen, letting her reach even more viewers.