May brings a surprisingly big amount of updates that include AI usage. Now, artificial intelligence is a major engine and support system for perfecting old features and implementing new ones. How is it used to enhance performance and protect creators? Well, you can find it out below.
New on YouTube: Shorts Remix + Ask YouTube — Your New Fortuneteller Video Recommendation Feature
At Google IO 2026, YouTube presented two major AI updates for creators. The first one is Gemini Omni being integrated into Shorts and YouTube Create. Now you can remix, edit, and even generate new videos using nothing but text prompts without any editing software. Also they’re testing out a tool called “Ask YouTube”, which means basically how it sounds: users will be able to search for videos by having a conversation with the platform without searching through keywords.
YouTube keeps making it easier to get started with content creation. And it seems to us they see the idea that AI-assisted creation is the way of the future. But at the same time, Shorts is about to get a more crowded space. Anyone can make many AI-generated videos, so if you’re aiming to stand out, you need to focus on developing a unique style of your own.
Likeness Detection to Everyone!
YouTube perfects Likeness Detection, a tool that lets creators keep an eye for AI-generated deepfake videos to be able to request them to be taken down straight from YouTube Studio. In the coming weeks, the feature will roll out to anyone 18+ who’s eligible.
This is just one of YouTube’s attempts to stop a growing amount of AI impersonators and deepfakes. For content creators, this is about safeguarding your personal brand, having enough protection, and not having to put up with fake videos of yourself spreading on the web.
Major AI-driven TikTok Innovations Are Coming
At TikTok World 2026, the TikTok team brought major updates on AI-powered tools to the table for brands and creators. Some of the highlights include: a new Creator AI Search tool that lets you find creators fast; they’ve also upgraded Seedance 2.0 to work seamlessly with TikTok Symphony to make scalable AI-driven video content; and Reference to Video lets advertisers to have super precise control over the AI-generated scenes and products they want to feature. On top of that, they’ve launched Search Hubs to get branded content showing up where it matters, TopReach Creative Sequencing to tell better stories in your ads, and TikTok GO Ads that are focused on making travel bookings happen from within the app.
But if you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, it’s pretty clear: TikTok is going all in on building an AI-driven ad ecosystem automating all key points: content creation, campaign optimization, finding new creators, and commerce too. And for creators, that means a higher demand for scalable partnerships and more competition from all the AI-assisted branded content.
Meta Will Use AI to Figure Out If Users Are Too Young
Meta announced new AI tools for Facebook and Instagram that let the platforms take a closer look at users who might be under 13. The tech uses a mix of visual clues such as how tall someone is and their bone structure to guess whether a user is a minor alongside analyzing the things they type in bio and posts. If the AI thinks a user might be under 13, the account could be suspended until the user can prove they’re old enough.
For content creators and social media platforms in general, this move marks a big shift towards using AI to help keep the bad stuff out. There’s a lot of pressure on platforms to do better when it comes to keeping kids safe. But at the same time, this new tool inevitably raises questions about online privacy and whether it’s okay to use biometrics to figure out more about your users. Can platforms go too far in using AI to build a picture of who their users are? We’re about to find out.
Google Expands AI-Powered Ads & AI Search Monetization at I/O 2026
But let’s dive a little deeper into the updates revealed at the Google conference. Beyond the creator tools, Google also had some major news for advertisers at the I/O 2026: AI-driven advertising is getting more interesting. Think, AI Performance Insights for tracking how well your brand shows up in AI-generated answers. Then there’s “Ask Advisor“, an AI that’s going to be big support for Ads and Analytics, and new ad formats that’ll show up right in the middle of your search results when you’re talking to an AI. Google’s even testing out AI-generated Shopping ads and giving YouTube Demand Gen tools more updates.
For content creators, brands, and marketers, this means discoverability just got a lot more complicated. You’ll need to start optimizing for those AI answers as much as you work at your SEO. It’s also a sign that AI-powered recommendation systems are going to have more influence on how people find things online.
X Adds “Active Followers” Metric to Creator Analytics
X rolled out a new analytics metric that shows you exactly how many of your followers were on the platform in the past 24 hours. They’re also giving you the percentage of your total audience that’s active, which gives you a much better idea of where your posts are reaching and how they’re performing.
For creators, this new metric is a big help in figuring out why your posts rarely reach all of your followers. It also shifts the focus from tracking follower numbers to looking at the quality of your active audience.
New Metric on YouTube: Unique Reach
YouTube announced a new “unique reach” metric in the analytics section, which is designed to give a better idea of how many people are watching on connected TVs, because usually more than one person is watching it. Its model is going to consider factors like demographics, video genre, etc, to count how many people are watching CTV.
YouTube also added the ability to put music into image posts and carousels in the Shorts feed. They successfully get people experimenting with different types of content. For the creators on the platform, these two updates show just how much YouTube reinforces focus on Shorts, TV, and getting advertisers more included into the process.
