I’ve been using YouTube Premium for the last three years as it is, so I’m far from a critic when it comes to the service. However, I do have to say that while there’s a lot of value in the service itself, I can’t help but shake my head at some of the choices that the video-sharing platform makes to push people towards the subscription.
Following a recent price hike of large proportions in many international markets, YouTube is introducing a new feature to Premium for users in the US (who weren’t affected by the price increase, at least not in this cycle). This new feature, which we’ll call Ask, is likely meant to sweeten the deal.
Throw a stone in any direction and chances are it’ll hit a developer talking about AI somewhere; that’s how prevalent it is becoming. Even applications that you’d have never imagined would need AI are somehow finding ways to shoehorn it in. The next on that list is YouTube, which isn’t too surprising considering Google has been sticking Gemini into everything it owns, like an ingredient that’s about to expire.
This time around, the feature is limited to YouTube Premium subscribers and while it doesn’t seem to have an official name at the moment, you can call it “Ask”, similar to the Ask Photos feature in Google Photos. I won’t lie; I sort of see the utility in this feature, unlike many other AI implementations. Using Ask will save you the trouble of watching a video in full or having to scroll back to get a certain piece of info.
You can just use the new feature to ask, “Did she mix the raisins in before or after the sugar?”, instead of having to scroll back into it. It can also help you summarize the video, get recommendations for content just like it, and so on. It’s basically Gemini that is integrated into YouTube. I can see how it could be useful here and there.
This Added Value Could Be Why YouTube Just Suffered An Insane Price Hike
Google must have had the Ask feature in the works for YouTube for a very long time. Its unveiling, just days after several users received notifications that their Premium subscriptions would cost as much as 50% more, might be the company’s attempt to show that, “Hey look, it really is worth it!”. However, I don’t know if AI is what people want when it comes to YouTube.
Most of us don’t tend to do any kind of Q&A with the videos we watch. Maybe you scroll through the comments for some additional insight or a few laughs, but asking questions isn’t something most folks might do. At the moment, the new AI feature is only available in the US, but the platform might be testing it there before rolling it out to other international markets.
Regardless of whether this was the company’s justification for higher prices or not, it’s going to have to do a whole lot more to improve the value of that subscription. Otherwise, many people will join the ad-blocker war.
