On Monday, Dec. 16, YouTube announced that it will start giving YouTubers more of a choice over how third-party companies use their videos to train AI models.
As of Dec. 16, YouTubers can allow or deny the use of their content in AI training. This setting, which is within YouTube Studio, is automatically toggled as opting out. As well as opting in or out, creators can handpick which third-party companies you permit to train on your videos.
The YouTuber AI overhaul: What companies are involved?
According to TechCrunch, there are eighteen of these companies to choose from. These include “AI21 Labs, Adobe, Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, ByteDance, Cohere, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Perplexity, Pika Labs, Runway, Stability AI, and xAI.”
In a statement to The Verge, YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said, “These companies were chosen because they’re building generative AI models and are likely sensible choices for a potential partnership with creators.”
TechCrunch reports that this feature is available to creators with administrative access to the YouTube Studio Content Manager. Meanwhile, in its blog post, YouTube mentioned that this doesn’t change the platform’s terms or Services regarding AI use. Specifically, the company points out that “unauthorized scraping” of YouTube videos remains prohibited.
“We see this as an important first step in supporting creators and helping them realize new value for their YouTube content in the AI era,” YouTube spokesperson Bob says in the blog post. “
As we gather feedback, we’ll continue to explore features that facilitate new forms of collaboration between creators and third-party companies, including options for authorized methods to access content.”
This is exciting news for creators who are worried about their work being used to train YouTube’s AI models.
