YouTube's new AI feature allows users to skip ahead to best parts of a video

YouTube is using AI to allow a small group of its premium subscribers in the U.S. to jump ahead to the most watched or best parts of a video.

When viewers double tap to skip ahead, instead of usually skipping 10-seconds ahead, a pill-shaped “jump ahead” button will appear on the bottom-right corner for a few seconds before disappearing.

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Once the button is tapped, a text page reading “jumping over commonly skipped section” will be overlayed as YouTube uses AI and user watch behaviour data to identify the next best part of a video that users typically skip ahead to.

The feature will also be available to content creators for their own videos even if they do not have a premium account.

"We’re always experimenting with new ways to provide our YouTube Premium subscribers with exclusive and unique experiences. We'll consider rolling features out more broadly based on feedback on these experiments," said a YouTube spokesperson in conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

YouTube is also allowing viewers to sign up for experiments and be rewarded with gift cards for their time.

“If a study is a good fit for your profile, you’ll receive a follow-up questionnaire and details about what the study involves, including next steps and locations,” said a statement on the page.

Some of the premium features YouTube offers include a conversational AI tool that answers questions related to suggested related content and an AI summarisation feature for content topics. 

"Creators can use these comment summaries to more quickly jump into comment discussions on their videos, or to draw inspiration for new content based on what their audiences are discussing," said YouTube in a statement.

As YouTube ramps up its premium offerings, it is also strengthening its enforcement on third-party apps that violate its terms of service and, in particular, on ad-blocking apps. 

In a statement, YouTube said that viewers using these third-party apps may experience "buffering issues" or see the error message, “The following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch a video. 

It said that it would like to emphasise that its terms do not allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership.

"Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service," it said. 

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