YouTube CEO Neal Mohan confirmed earlier this summer that the company planned to add generative AI to the creator tools for YouTube Shorts. There were already tools to generate backgrounds for videos, but the next phase will involve creating new video elements from a text prompt.

Starting today, creators will be able to use a photo as the basis for a new generative AI video. YouTube also promises a collection of easily applied generative effects, which will be accessible from the Shorts camera. There’s also a new AI playground hub that the company says will be home to all its AI tools, along with examples and suggested prompts to help people pump out AI content.

The Veo 2-based videos aren’t as realistic as Veo 3 clips, but an upgrade is planned.
The Veo 2-based videos aren’t as realistic as Veo 3 clips, but an upgrade is planned.

So far, all the YouTube AI video features are running on the Veo 2 model. The plan is still to move to Veo 3 later this summer. The AI features in YouTube Shorts are currently limited to the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but they will expand to more countries later.