YouTube Premium users in the US can now use Jump Ahead, a new feature that uses AI to tell users the best parts of a video. This feature combines user data with AI to predict which part of a specific video users would like to watch.
The feature only works on the YouTube app for Android and is available for select English-language videos. It was announced in March and has been in testing, only available to select YouTube Premium subscribers. That said, users only have until June 1 to try out the feature, after which YouTube might either roll it out officially or continue experimenting to fine-tune it further.
Using the feature is also quite simple. Once you’ve opted in via the YouTube experimental features page, you should see a jump-ahead button that can be double-tapped to skip forward to parts most viewers typically skip on an eligible video. In other words, you can quickly get to what the AI and user data determine to be a video’s best part(s).
While the feature might be useful for viewers to get to the most popular parts of a video quickly, there’s no word on how it’ll affect creators on the platform. This especially affects new creators trying to complete their 4,000 watch hours on the platform before monetising their videos. Regardless, depending on the feature rollout and how it affects video watch time, it can potentially affect creators across the board.
It also seems to build upon an existing, nameless feature on the platform that highlights the most replayed part of a video when a user hovers over the timeline on a web browser. As is the trend with most big tech companies, YouTube is finding ways to integrate AI into existing products. This also includes an experimental AI chatbot that can answer questions about a particular video, meaning users can get the information they want without even watching the video in the first place.
In the News: Google Gemini chatbot to integrate YouTube Music soon
