YouTube Shorts Could Soon Be Full of AI-Generated Backgrounds

pcmag.com:

AI is coming to YouTube in a big way. Later this year, the Google-owned video platform will start testing an experimental new feature for Shorts creators, allowing them to use AI to generate video or photos for video backgrounds, the company said at its annual Made on YouTube event.

The idea is simple on its face. YouTube Shorts are a big push for Google, thanks in part to the meteoric growth of TikTok. But even Shorts videos take a decent amount of effort, from finding a decent camera and microphone to coming up with an idea and choosing where to film.

That last part can be difficult, depending on your idea for a video. If you want to create a short video about going to space, you're probably out of luck for a realistic space background. And that's where Dream Screen comes into play. You can ask for a photo or video that matches your imagination using a simple dialog prompt.

At the event, YouTube briefly showed off a Dream Screen, and the service quickly generated a background video. One example showed a panda drinking out of a coffee cup, although the video itself didn't look very realistic.

Depending on your needs, though, realistic may not be the first requirement. Being able to create the video at all might be a step up for YouTube creators on a budget. As other AI art generators have proven, a good enough prompt and some additional work in Photoshop can make for a truly realistic an fantastical image.

Google says it'll roll out the experimental feature to select creators first and will release it more widely later this year. But given the "experimental" tag, there's always the possibility it could be canceled entirely.

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