YouTube Will Use AI to Improve the Quality of Low-Resolution Videos.
YouTube is currently undergoing a slew of changes , which the company says should help it look better on TVs. Today, YouTube announced it will allow creators to upload larger thumbnails and will make viewing and shopping on TVs a little more convenient. But major changes to the content itself are also coming, and they won’t just affect TVs.
YouTube will soon begin using artificial intelligence to automatically upscale any videos below 1080p. While it’s technically still possible to upload videos in 720p, given that smartphone cameras are getting better and better, to me, those are essentially “old videos.” This worries me a bit, as I’ve been watching a lot of 90s and early 2000s TV shows on YouTube lately.
When done correctly , AI upscaling is a simple way to remove noise from videos, more resilient to hallucinations than previous generations built from solid material. But it also has its drawbacks, and some creators have already accused YouTube of using AI upscaling without informing them, with some undesirable consequences. So far, the accusations have been limited to short YouTube videos, but, notably, even Will Smith appears to have encountered the system’s hidden AI, as the celebrity himself was accused of creating a crowd using AI in a YouTube short from a recent concert. However, internet sleuths have determined that the footage is likely genuine, but YouTube automatically made it look like “AI garbage.” Note, for example, how different this footage looks on Instagram .
Fortunately, YouTube states that this version of AI upscaling will be entirely in the hands of creators and users. According to the feature’s announcement, “creators will retain full control over their library, as original files and video resolution will be preserved unaltered, with the option to opt out of these enhancements.” Viewers, meanwhile, will be able to see when AI upscaling has been applied thanks to the “super resolution” label in the resolution selection settings and choose the original resolution.
Additionally, YouTube told The Verge that videos filmed at a resolution lower than 1080p but manually remastered and uploaded at 1080p or higher will not be affected by the upscaling technology. Only the resolution at which the video was uploaded is important.
All of this is a relief for people like me who don’t want weird seven-fingered extras in their sitcoms, though it’s unclear whether this control will extend to YouTube Shorts, or whether YouTube will continue to experiment with mandatory AI-powered upscaling behind the scenes (which, frankly, hasn’t been confirmed yet).
Regardless, YouTube’s decisions are entirely logical: it’s aiming to attract more attention on more devices. Low-resolution videos may look good on a six-inch smartphone screen, but when scaled up to 50 inches or more on a TV, they’re not so good.
YouTube hasn’t announced a specific launch date for this feature, but if you notice what looks like weird AI artifacts the next time you watch a YouTube video, try checking your resolution settings by hovering over the video and clicking or tapping the gear icon.