Overview
- More than 1 million channels used YouTube’s AI creation tools on an average day in December, according to Mohan’s letter.
- Creators will be able to generate Shorts using their own AI likeness sometime in 2026, with additional tools to make games from text prompts and to experiment with music.
- YouTube says it is building on spam and clickbait defenses to reduce repetitive, low-quality AI content, while labeling AI-made videos, requiring disclosure for realistic synthetic media and removing harmful deepfakes.
- The company is expanding likeness detection and upgrading Content ID to help creators manage unauthorized face and voice use, and it continues to back the proposed NO FAKES Act.
- Shorts averages 200 billion daily views and will add image posts to the feed, while viewer AI features saw strong uptake in December with 20 million Ask users and over 6 million daily watching 10+ minutes of autodubbed videos; parents will also get a Shorts timer that can be set to zero.