YouTube will soon start offering recommendations based on items its AI recognizes in videos

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As Google continues to morph YouTube into more than just a place to watch videos, the latest feature being tested on the website would have Google automatically identifying items in videos.

It seems like this new feature will almost act as a supercharged version of video recommendations. Essentially, YouTube will use AI to identify products in videos then offer other videos that feature the same or similar products. While this could be useful in some cases, I have to wonder what the limits will be. I don’t care if a couch has been recognized in two different videos when it was simply something in the background.

Announced on a support page that highlights new features, the page was updated this week to reflect the new tests:

[March 22, 2021] Testing automated list of products detected in videos: We are experimenting with a new feature that displays a list of products detected in some videos, as well as related products. The feature will appear in between the recommended videos, to viewers scrolling below the video player. The goal is to help people explore more videos and information about those products on YouTube. This feature will be visible to people watching videos in the US.

As you can see, Google is putting emphasis on words like “automated” and “detect.” This means that Google will be using its AI to scour actual videos and not titles or tags provided by the video creators.

9to5Google notes the feature will most likely be aimed at people looking for reviews and things of that nature before purchasing something. In that case, this feature could eventually complement shopping through YouTube.

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