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YouTube Now Makes AI Music?

In the midst of the boom in generative AI tools in social media, YouTube has just taken a major leap into the controversial grounds of AI music. Partnering with 9 big name artists including Charlie Puth and John Legend, YouTube’s new element called “Dream Track” allows users to create their own music featuring select artists’ AI generated voice for their Shorts from a simple text prompt. 

The world of AI music copyright laws are still opaque and incredibly complicated. It was only just a few months ago when the viral AI-generated Drake song was taken down from YouTube due to copyright complaints and Spotify still appears to be in the process of deciding exactly what to do with this new form of music content. Still, YouTube seems interested in leading the charge of AI music as they partner with record labels to establish rules for how AI-generated music is treated and monetized. 

Although this still continues to be a messy scene regarding rights and concerns, this new experiment led by YouTube looks quite promising in delivering some clarification on the subject while embracing the changing landscape of AI-generated content. Their partnership with record labels aim to harness creator-led innovation while offering monetization for the use of artists’ voices which may just result in a win-win for all parties involved. While this approach certainly won’t fix the entire problem, it definitely provides a clearer distinction between approved and unapproved variations. 

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X Releases Its Own Chatbot

X has recently announced that they will be releasing their own chatbot, Grok, to compete with other AI platforms like that of ChatGPT. This feature is currently available for limited early access testing and is set to be released to be available for their Premium+ subscribers. What might make Musk’s version of an AI chatbot more attractive for some users is that it will include less censorship on politically sensitive topics, which may attract some of them away from ChatGPT’s free, but politically sensitive program. Furthermore, the AI program benefits from X’s gargantuan library of information and Grok’s language is trained by X posts, making its responses more human-like in terms of humor and tone. In xAI’s own words, it is designed to answer questions with a “rebellious streak” adding a layer of fun to the user experience. 

The imminent introduction of this new feature for Premium+ members seems to be in line with X’s long term vision of becoming the “everything app”. They have continued to invest in all sorts of developments to bring an array of new features to the platform and an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT appears to be a convincing addition to the fleet. Furthermore, this feature may boost the attractiveness of their more premium subscription tier for existing users and encourage overall engagement and time spent on the app. 

One caveat to note is the question of the truth. While Elon Musk’s vision for this addition is to help spread a better representation of the truth and steer the public away from misinformation, the nature of what makes a “truth” true is still a complicated one. And how might the public react to this plethora of uncensored, real happenings in the world?

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Facebook Pushing Too Far With AI

Recently having brought out new generative AI features for advertisers, Facebook is continuing further experimentation to bring more AI elements onto its platform. The first of these features is a tool that allows users to create AI generated profile pictures. This closely resembles the avatar capabilities available on TIkTok and Snapchat where users are able to choose from a list of different styles to generate artistic portraits. Amidst the attempts to bring more excitement onto the platform, Facebook is also experimenting with AI post creation tools. This tool more closely resembles that of ChatGPT where users would be able to generate posts through prompt inputs.

Being the most popular social media platform in the world, the potential of this new feature is quite alarming. It seems the world of social media may just take an eerie turn, replacing human to human interactions and content creation with AI generated messages. Whether this will serve as a new outlet to further serve human creativity or catalyze the decline of language and literacy is yet to be determined. However, Facebook looks determined to bring more tools to increase overall user engagement and if this feature were to be released successfully, it seems it will only be a matter of time until users can respond to personal messages with AI as well. 

Over the past months, Meta has been determined in its exploration of new features on all of its platforms, even testing chat features to help write more effective messages. Furthermore, Mark Zuckerberg has even noted that “over the longer term, [they will] focus on building AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways”. Ultimately, it will be up for the masses to decide whether they will welcome this new direction of change or push back in favor of more organic and genuine intercourse.

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Meta Offers New Generative AI Features for Advertisers

After over five months of testing with select partners, Meta has finally launched a set of new generative AI features for advertisers to aid in the ad creation process and help boost campaign performance. These features include background generation, text variations, and image expansion tools, offering marketers more tools in their arsenal to maximize output while shaving down on creation time. According to Meta, these tools are expected to save advertisers five or more hours a week, allowing them to focus more of their time and resources on other strategic work. 

AI-generated backgrounds are no new feature in the world of social media. Just last month, YouTube announced several AI tools for creators to aid in the video creation process, which included background generation in the form of video and photo. While many releases of AI tools on social media have been geared towards consumers and creators, it appears that Meta will be the first of many to apply this process onto its B2B operations.

In addition to these new features, Meta is also currently working on other AI tools for business messaging to help companies better engage with their customers. This focus on empowering businesses with more advertising tools and making the marketing process easier just makes sense. Considering most of the revenue on their platforms are generated through advertisements, these implementations might just allow Meta to stimulate more marketing activities and attract new and smaller businesses, ultimately driving up their revenue. 

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X's Quest to Become the "Everything App" may Include Game Streaming

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Just over this past weekend, X owner Elon Musk personally demonstrated the video game streaming capabilities of the app, displaying yet another potential area in expanding their content offerings. Recently, at its first Client Council meeting, X shared its long-term vision to become the “everything app” along with a list of its most recent developments. These included new features like money transfers between users, creator subscriptions and ad revenue share, and even multi-format video playback. On its quest to be the app for all, it appears that game streaming may be the next potential growth opportunity. 

Although the world of the newly named social media app may seem quite adrift from the gaming world, this venture comes as no surprise. Gaming is currently the most trending sector in media and X’s statistics clearly show that gaming conversations are rising within the app with billions of gaming related posts every year. Furthermore, implementing game streaming options may act as another avenue to attract more content creators onto the app as data shows the majority of the top creators on YouTube are rooted in gaming culture. Nonetheless, this is still very early in its development stage and it is yet unclear how X will ultimately differentiate itself and compete with other established rivals like Twitch and YouTube. 

With a plethora of new features already added and on its way to the app, the future of X is destined for great change. Ultimately, how X will organize all these features in a UI that is approachable and attractive for its users may very well be the defining point for their success. Otherwise, they might just risk becoming a glorified version of Reddit. 

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Instagram Tests Longer Reels Uploads

A few weeks ago, Instagram confirmed that they are currently testing longer Reels, with a focus on 3-minute and 10-minute clips. This seems to be in direct response to its most threatening competitor, TikTok, having introduced longer video upload features on its platform early last year. Longer reels will once again diminish the differences between the two platforms and potentially allow Instagram to attract more screen time with its wider media offerings. 

Although the lengthening of clips has been a common trend in online video throughout its history, the viability of the current “revolution” in vertical content remains to be in question. It is still uncertain whether short-form content users will be willing to engage with longer content as a shorter format is essentially the “trademark” of vertical videos. In addition, users may not necessarily have the attention span for longer videos on a platform where they traditionally don’t spend longer than a minute on a single post. 

In the world of online video, YouTube is the go to place for engaging with longer forms of content and forming deeper connections with creators.  However, as TechCrunch mentions, the introduction of longer Reels would allow Instagram to compete with YouTube and bring more flexibility for creators. On the other hand, for bigger creators, YouTube is a much more profitable platform for sharing long-form content and it is hard to imagine that they would want to share those longer videos elsewhere and take away their potential views on YouTube. Furthermore, many Instagram influencers' Reels are optimized for short-form content and had they wanted to make longer videos, would they not be making YouTube videos?

While it is still too early to predict the changes long-form Reels may bring to the world of social media, the emergence or consideration of it is certainly a sign that vertical content is evolving. Will consumers and creators embrace longer forms of vertical video? And if so, is it capable of competing with YouTube’s horizontal long-form content? Or will it introduce an entirely new type of content of its own? 

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Harrison Kang | Business of Media Fall 2023 | Social Media

My sector is Social Media and I will be following The Verge, Vox, and Social Media Today.