Much has been made from AI chatbots’ skill to summarize PDF recordsdata or lengthy Web pages. But there’s a big time-saver that Google’s Bard is starting to deploy, and it’s value trying out: Knowledge of the gazillion hours of YouTube video it’s already archived.

On November 21, Google took “the first steps in Bard’s ability to understand YouTube videos,” in response to the list of Bard updates that Google publishes. Coming because it did the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the advance didn’t generate a lot discover. But after enjoying round with it, I’ve to say that there’s an infinite quantity of hidden potential.

Take YouTube usually. If you’re like me, it’s possible you’ll hearken to it as a podcast, or for those who’re on the lookout for particular directions on tips on how to full a job. (My spouse simply used it to learn to change a headlamp bulb in her car, and he or she was immensely happy with her accomplishment in addition to the cash it saved us.)

But YouTube takes time — loads of it, particularly for those who’re wading by hours-long podcasts to search out an opinion or a factoid, or simply the piece of recommendation you’re on the lookout for. You can think about, for instance, how a lot data was communicated over radio over the past fifty years.

It’s this kind of deep studying that chatbots have began to lean extra closely upon. The first iterations of ChatGPT didn’t even provide up-to-date information. Now they do, typically, particularly with Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Bard. ChatGPT began adding plugins in March, but it surely requires customers to pay $20 per thirty days for ChatGPT Plus. Bard doesn’t — it’s all free.

That means Google can faucet into its present providers: Google Flights, Hotels, and Maps, plus customized data saved in Google Workspace. You have the choice to show these on and off via the Bard extensions page. But it’s YouTube’s Bard extension that holds probably the most promise.

Why use it? Two key causes. First, Bard can summarize a YouTube video in a lot the identical approach that it might probably summarize a Web web page or lengthy PDF. That is extremely useful: Let’s say that you just had been within the matter of how building a PC differs around the world. You may hearken to the primary jiffy to get a way for whether or not it’s value your time. But Google does it the proper approach: it summarizes the video, and embeds it, so to dive deeper in order for you.

Consider this instance:

Mark Hachman / IDG

Here, we see how Bard sums up among the element Gordon and Pedro get into, with out giving all the recreation away. Video, for instance, thrives when it exhibits an attractive dialog between two individuals, and a abstract can by no means remove that. What it does do, nonetheless, is assist you to resolve whether or not you need to make investments (on this case) ten minutes of your life into diving deeper.

Google’s AI search made lots of people queasy as a result of it sucks up the normal checklist of hyperlinks right into a textual abstract and hyperlinks. Ask it a query, and it’ll attempt to reply it. This feels completely different, and way more honest to the content material creator. Is it as a result of Google will get paid for those who really watch the video, somewhat than going to a third-party web page? Very presumably.

Even in a brief video the place Bard does a pleasant job of summing up the factors, you continue to profit from watching the video itself:

Mark Hachman / IDG

Where Bard doesn’t do a fantastic job is on longer movies — reminiscent of a conventional podcast, the place varied factors of view and subjects may be debated over a protracted time frame. Speakers ramble, get distracted, and segue into meaningless sidetracks — all probably entertaining, however not all the time of curiosity to both Bard otherwise you.

Of course, you possibly can ask Bard to collate opinions, too, its second spectacular feat. I’m not as impressed right here with this search, given the generally completely irrelevant content material that Bard can spotlight. Bard does a pleasant job to find (admittedly, simply) one video that exhibits how Gordon thinks concerning the Apple Mac. But within the search (not proven within the picture under) Google additionally exhibits a set of shorts that embody most cancers being present in chickens and another random movies. None are related.

Mark Hachman / IDG

One large query: can different chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft observe go well with and deeply index YouTube’s video? I don’t know. They definitely don’t (can’t?) at current. If you ask Bing/Copilot to summarize a video, it refuses, regardless that Microsoft alluded to deeper search capabilities arriving in Copilot.

“I’m sorry, but I am not able to summarize the video for you,” Copilot replies, when requested to summarize a video. “However, there are some online tools that can help you with that.”

Google’s summaries aren’t good. As Google says, although, these are “first steps.” I’m not completely certain that Google might ever fairly catch up and index the quantity of content material that customers create day by day, however Bard’s skill to make sense of all of it is a noticeable enchancment –and one which different chatbots merely don’t provide but.