YouTube Debuts Conversational Editing Tool That Takes Natural-Language Commands

The tool works through a chat interface, where creators tell the AI how to help them put a video together. In addition to selecting clips, it can add text overlays, remove pauses in speech and make suggestions to the creator based on the context of the conversation, TechCrunch reported.

YouTuber Happy Kelli demonstrated the feature on stage. She shared footage of herself dancing in different outfits and asked the AI to select the best take for each outfit, then added music and transitions to match the dance. "A one-hour shoot can be 10 hours or more in the edit. So, what if we could speed that process along without sacrificing any of our creative control?" she said.

Kelli said she could return to the editing timeline at any point to make adjustments by hand. "If at any point I want even more control, I can jump back into the editing timeline and manually adjust things myself," she said. "Overall, conversational editing turns the process of editing into a literal conversation with an infinitely patient helper. It's a collaborative partner that edits with you, not for you."

The announcement reflects a tension among creators over AI-assisted production. Some may find that the tool saves time and speeds up a task that is often tedious, while others may feel their individual editing style is what sets their videos apart and be reluctant to hand control to an AI.

The conversational editing feature was one of several new creator tools YouTube presented at the event.