YouTube starts testing AI summarizer on Shorts (mobile only)

YouTube announced it is now testing the AI summarizer launched last year on long-form video with Shorts. The feature uses AI to organize large comment sections on English-language Shorts into more palatable themes.

The AI summarizer is available on mobile, so if you’re in the experiment group, you’ll soon see a new option to sort by “Topics” on some Shorts when reading comments on your phone.

The new feature should help creators use comment summaries to jump into comment discussions on their video or create new content based on what their audiences are discussing.

Creators also have the ability to remove individual comments that show up under the specific topic. According to YouTube, the AI-generated “Topics” are pulled from published comments only and can’t be created from comments that are held for review, contain blocked words, or are from blocked users.

Announced over the weekend, the feature is rolling out on the YouTube mobile app to a small number of viewers on a small number of Shorts with large comment section. This means that even if you have access to AI summarizer, you might not see the feature available on all Shorts.