Curbing misinformation critical as AI-powered tools come in: YouTube

YouTube, its India director said, is committed to enforcing its policies consistently globally, and especially in India

YouTube on Wednesday said curbing misinformation is critical for platforms and society as tech evolves and AI powered tools come in, and asserted that the video streaming platform will act swiftly against technically manipulated content that aims to mislead users and cause real world harm.

YouTube has has well established community guidelines in place that determine what kind of content is allowed on the platform, Ishan John Chatterjee, Director, India, YouTube, said at a media briefing.

"Content moderation is a critical challenge for YouTube and also for society as whole as tech evolves," he said to a question on YouTube's content moderation approach in the backdrop of AI moving to point where humans on screen are being replaced by AI avatars and powerful newage tools.

"One of the policies besides different things like violence and graphic content is...about misinformation and content that is technically manipulated to mislead users and cause real world harm...That is not allowed on our platform and we will act against it," he vowed.

YouTube, he said, is committed to enforcing its policies consistently globally, and especially in India.

"We are constantly evolving processes and technologies to make sure we are able to meet this challenge. Earlier this year... Sundar Pichai announced two things we will be looking at... Meta data and watermarks that will come....on content AI generated and those are ways for viewers and us to use AI to detect it," he said.

Crackdown on misinformation is an area of critical importance to the platform, according to Chatterjee.

"We have made significant investment and advances in doing it. But we know that our work here is never done, so we'll continuously keep investing in this area," he said.

YouTube, which is celebrating 15 years of launch of localised version in India, also shared insights into how the ingenuity of Indian creators coupled with evolving preferences of fans are defining significant trends in creation, consumption and pop culture.

YouTube said it continues to expand creative tools, ways to monetise and help creators engage with audiences in meaningful ways, at the same time giving creators and viewers a safe experience to create and connect.

"We will continue to be laser focused on making YouTube the best platform for long-term success," Chatterjee added.

Listing out the key trends that showcase the impact of Indian creators and fans in shaping the digital video landscape and creator economy in India, he mentioned that creation has become frictionless, and that consumption is multiformat and seamless.

More creative tools have spurred an expansion of formats, which in turn resulted in more stories, more scale, and greater impact.

In fact, 69 per cent of Gen Z in India (surveyed) like it when their favorite creators are creating in different formats like short form, long form, podcasts, and live streams.

"With 71 per cent of people watching videos about a specific topic that they are into in multiple different formats, consumption has become boundless and seamless," YouTube said in a release.