YouTube enhances live streams with expanded AI-driven topics

YouTube has provided additional details on its ongoing test of AI-generated live chat summaries, alongside expanding the reach of its illuminated subscription button and Super Chat engagement features in live streams.

The company first introduced AI chat summaries in June, initially for regular videos, and is now extending this feature to live streams. “With AI-generated live chat summaries, you’ll see a banner display at the top of the live chat when you join a live stream that has sufficient chat activity prior to you joining," YouTube stated. "These chat summaries are created from published chats, which means that they won’t use text that’s held for review, containing blocked words, or was sent by blocked users.”

The AI summaries aim to help users quickly grasp the key discussion points within a live stream, offering a streamlined way to engage with ongoing conversations. Despite imperfections in AI-generated summaries, YouTube views this feature as an opportunity to enhance user interaction in live streams.

In addition, YouTube is testing a new highlight feature on the “Join” button for channel memberships. This button is illuminated with an animated color ring whenever a creator mentions phrases like “join my channel,” utilizing audio and text recognition to trigger the display. YouTube hopes this will simplify the process of boosting sign-ups. Previously available in limited testing, the feature is now being rolled out to more channels.

Lastly, YouTube is expanding engagement options for Super Chats. “A few months ago, we experimented with a reply button, as well as the ability to like Super Chats, which offered viewers more meaningful ways to interact with the chat community and feel more connected during a live stream. We saw positive results from the experiment, so we’re happy to announce that we’ve launched these features to all creators who have Super Chat turned on,” the company announced.