YouTube now lets creators clone themselves in Shorts
What's the story
YouTube has launched a new feature for Shorts that allows creators to clone themselves on camera. The tool, which was hinted at earlier this year, is part of the platform's complicated relationship with AI content. Despite adding more generative features, YouTube has also been dealing with issues like deepfake scams and impersonations. The new feature lets users create an avatar, a digital version of themselves, that can be inserted into existing or new Shorts videos.
Avatar creation
How to create your avatar
Creating an avatar isn't as simple as clicking a button, but YouTube has made the process pretty straightforward. Users first have to record a "live selfie" of their face and voice by following some prompts. For best results, YouTube recommends good lighting, a quiet place with no other people or faces in the background, and holding the phone at eye level.
Avatar usage
Using your avatar in Shorts
Once created, users can select "make a video with my avatar" while creating a video to generate a clip of up to eight seconds from prompts. They can also add their avatar to "eligible Shorts" in their feed. However, YouTube hasn't clarified what makes a Short eligible for this feature. The AI avatar feature comes with strict restrictions and can only be used in the creator's own original videos.
Avatar control
Unused avatars to be deleted after 3 years
YouTube says creators have full control over their avatars, including the option to delete them or videos featuring them at any time. However, avatars not used for new content creation for three years will be automatically deleted. All avatar videos will be clearly marked as AI-generated with visible watermarking and digital labels like SynthID and C2PA, a widely supported but questionably useful authentication marker used to identify AI-generated content.
Feature rollout
AI avatars join other YouTube AI tools
The avatar feature will be rolled out gradually, YouTube said, without specifying a timeline or where it will be available first. Creators must also be at least 18 years old and own an existing YouTube channel to use this feature. The introduction of this tool adds to YouTube's growing list of AI tools for creators, including AI-generated video clips on Shorts, AI auto-dubbing, and a channel analytics chatbot.