YouTube has rolled out a powerful new update for Shorts, introducing generative AI features to help creators animate, edit, and enhance their content like never before.
With this update, users can turn static photos into animated videos using a new image-to-video AI tool. Just select an image from your phone, pick visual effect, and watch it transform into a dynamic short clip. This technique has already gained popularity on other AI platform.
Another exciting feature lets users animate simple sketches or doodles. While still new, it offers a fresh, creative way to bring hand-drawn art to life.
The update also introduces “AI Playground”, a new space for experimenting with YouTube’s AI tools. It includes sample content, creative prompts, and generators for music, videos, and images.
Currently, AI Playground is available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Global rollout will continue later this year.
These new tools are powered by Google’s Veo 2 engine, with an upgrade to Veo 3 coming soon. To ensure transparency, YouTube will apply SynthID watermarks and clear labels to AI-generated content.
All features will appear under the “Effects” tab in the Shorts camera, making them easy to access.
With this update, YouTube gives creators more control to produce high-quality, animated content using AI quickly and creative.
