A recent one change sees YouTube further combating AI by clarifying its policies on how content on its platform is monetized. To discourage creators from using artificial intelligence and other tools to create low-quality content, YouTube’s policy now explains that there are three types of videos in the broader category of “inauthentic content” that cannot be monetized.
YouTube already had policies regarding AI content. Last year, the company announced it was eliminating the ability for creators to monetize what it called “inauthentic content,” including mass-produced videos and other types of repetitive content made easier to create with the help of AI technology.
Instead, the recent update is about adding more nuance to existing policies.
The updated guidelines break down inauthentic content into three categories, including generic, repetitive or pattern-based content, followed by unnecessary or disruptive content, and then any content where artificial intelligence is used to discuss sensitive topics such as health and finances.
While AI, like adult content, is something of a “you’ll know it when you see it” situation, YouTube’s policies are meant to clarify more specifically when AI is or isn’t allowed to be used in content creation for videos monetized through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).
The program, which allows creators to earn money through ads and subscriptions, is the lifeblood of YouTube. Allowing it to be filled with AI or other low quality fare would not be in the company’s financial best interests. This is especially important given that YouTube is in close competition with TV and other streamers for TV advertising dollars. Google’s video platform now generates more ad revenue than rival streamers surpassed Netflix in average daily views worldwide.
As YouTube’s head of trust and security Matt Halprin explained in a Creator Insider video last week, the company’s goal in revising its policy is to curtail its content cultivation efforts — a reference to low-quality videos that exist solely to generate revenue.
“AI can really enable people to do a lot of video,” Halprin said. “Sometimes these videos are great and really boost creativity. And you can create more of the high-quality content that we want to encourage and have at YPP.”
“But this very same new tool can allow you to create a lot of videos very quickly that are very similar. They’re very generic and they don’t have a narrative arc and they don’t really show your creativity. So the same technology allows for really cool things, but it also allows for things that are kind of content cultivation, and those are the things that we don’t want to add to Halpri.”
The first category, he said, includes repetitive content, such as material that can be easily made with AI, computer-generated imagery (CGI) or templates, with little variation from video to video. This fills a channel with cookie-cutter videos. Halprin notes that video tutorials could also fall under this policy if they replicate content that is already popular on the platform, rather than being original.
The second category focuses on what YouTube calls “unexpected” content, or content designed to be disturbing or emotionally manipulative in order to chase views. That could include videos showing an animal in distress that someone comes in and rescues, Halprin said.
“We’ve heard from our viewers that this is not something they like. They find it unpleasant. They don’t want to come back to this channel, or maybe even the platform,” Halprin said.
Channels dedicated to this content will be removed from YPP, regardless of whether the content is AI-generated or not.
The third bucket is aimed more directly at the use of AI faces – representations of real people made with AI. YouTube says it doesn’t want to incentivize creators who use AI faces to discuss more sensitive topics, such as finances, legal issues, health care and medical issues.
Any YouTube channel that has too many of these three types of content will not be able to monetize, Halprin said. The policy clarifications were released on July 16 and affect all members of the YouTube Partner Program.
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