Coming up with great ideas for YouTube videos can be hard, so YouTube is testing Brainstorm with Gemini, a new way for AI to be your inspiration. As explained originally in a YouTube Creator Insider video and spotted by TechCrunch, Brainstorm with Gemini employs the Google Gemini family of AI models to suggest video ideas and fitting thumbnails and titles to accompany the video. While you can ask ChatGPT and other AI assistants for ideas, YouTube can leverage its data to tailor its suggestions better, and just having the feature built into the platform might make it more enticing and help you get a leg up on the YouTube competition.
“[W]e’re testing a new studio integration with Google‘s AI tool Gemini with the goal of helping creators brainstorm video ideas, video titles, and thumbnail ideas,” explained the host of the Creator Insider video. “When you’re drafting outlines, look for a Brainstorm with Gemini button to get started.”
Brainstorm with Gemini only needs the broadest possible topic or idea as input. Users with access to the test feature can enter it in YouTube Studio and click on the Brainstorm button to get related and refined concepts for their video. It’s easy to imagine those who maybe only have a vague concept for a video or find the blank screen for uploading one intimidating turning to AI for assistance to help bridge the gap from their mind to the screen.
It’s not too dissimilar from an AI content suggestion tool YouTube started testing earlier this year, which even provides outlines of talking points to get started. Still, using the far more advanced capabilities of Google’s Gemini models could lead to better targeting in its suggestions. The thumbnail suggestions are also new. Presumably, that entails the AI seeing the final video and picking out a good image for the thumbnail. Gemini can process images that way, but the model used in the earlier test might not have that capacity.
AI Assistant Directors
Generative AI content creation and assistance have exploded in popularity lately, and platforms like YouTube are eager to take advantage of what they provide. This includes AI image and video creation tools not only from Google but also from Meta’s platforms like Instagram and standalone platforms like Runway and Ideogram.
YouTube itself has several new AI features and more to come. There is supposedly an AI music generator coming to the platform, which pairs well with a recent tool that can remove copyrighted music from your video without taking it down completely. YouTube is also working to counter concerns about its AI projects, such as setting up a new system to take down deepfakes of you upon request. For viewers, Google is also reportedly working on adding AI-powered chatbots mimicking famous people and fictional characters to YouTube, and there’s even an AI tool to help you skip to the most popular part of a video.
Brainstorm with Gemini represents an opportunity for creators to experiment with AI-assisted videomaking to save time and effort, but there’s likely to be some wariness about whether AI makes their content less authentic. Even with that caution, it’s likely tools like Brainstorm with Gemini will be a big part of content creation, at least in the short term. Gemini’s presence is a natural extension of Google’s efforts to make the AI model an integral part of your daily life, though it has learned a lesson about suggesting it can be a parental surrogate.
