There's no escaping the wave of AI that is washing over everything in the tech industry and beyond right now. The thing is, AI isn't a bad thing, but it's starting to sound like a buzzword at some points. Google is one company that has committed itself pretty seriously to the AI journey.
YouTube is one of the newest apps to get an AI-powered feature and this one is called “Jump Ahead”. For now, it is only being tested and is only available for YouTube Premium subscribers, but some people may find it rather useful. Let's dive into it.
Jump Ahead Should Make It A Lot Easier For You To Skip To The Right Point In Long Videos
I'm sure there have been people watching long videos on YouTube who have had to double-tap five or six times to get past a certain section of video (dedicated ad sections, we're looking at you). Well, it seems the team at YouTube has realized that this might be a real problem for some people, and has begun testing the Jump Ahead feature.
When you attempt to skip through a video, Jump Ahead leverages a mix of AI and existing watch data and will do its best to predict the point at which most people skip. This feature can be accessed as a Jump Ahead button that appears when you double-tap to skip through a video, and pressing it will bring up an overlay that says “Jumping over commonly skipped section” along with the YouTube Premium logo.
Now, at the moment, Jump Ahead is an experimental feature that you need to opt in to try, and it is only available for YouTube Premium members who are in the United States. It also isn't available for every single video. It seems to work mostly for videos that are in English and have a lot of views (and hence, a lot of watch data).
This Isn't The Only YouTube AI Feature Being Tested Right Now
YouTube is also testing an “Ask” button that basically brings a limited AI chatbot (though it's not clear if this is based on Gemini) to videos and lets you ask questions to learn more about the video, the topic in the video, or to get related content. I do admit that this feature might help you get more value out of longer videos a lot quicker.
Google's Restructure Was Focused Around Prioritizing AI, So Expect More Of This
Google recently announced a restructuring of the company that basically combines the software and product hardware teams into one giant happy family. Supposedly, this will be done to create better synergy between the teams, but AI was also cited as a major reason for this as it will likely let Google supercharge its AI development.
Google has been very serious about Google Gemini and AI features in other products and this might be in a major attempt to compete on equal footing with OpenAI and its products like ChatGPT. All I beg is that the AI infusion experiment doesn't begin to get annoying for the consumers.
