More often than not, when AI features are shoehorned into software and services today, they get in the way more than they are of real use.
However, sometimes an AI feature is added to a service we are already using. actually makes it better. In this case, many YouTube users now have access to an “ask” button powered by Google Gemini.
I’ve been using it recently and it’s probably one of the best user-friendly features that YouTube has added in a long time. It doesn’t make up for the loss of the dislike count, but otherwise I quite like using it specifically with tutorial content.
Why this YouTube “Ask a Question” feature caught my attention
I had questions
The “ask” feature has been available on YouTube for some time now, or so I discovered. I literally didn’t know about it until my wife called me to show it to me. Basically, if you click this button, a chat box with Google Gemini appears, and Gemini already knows the content of the video.
It allows you to ask questions about the video and get answers without having to watch the entire video. I think this is useful for YouTube tutorials in particular, because most of them tend to be pretty inefficient. They have padded introductions and a lot of confusing or irrelevant information, which can be annoying when you just want to know how to do a particular thing.
How the “Ask a Question” button actually works in practice
Unlock much more than you would expect
If you have access to the Ask Gemini button (not all regions and languages do), you’ll see it as a button in the browser player or YouTube app, as seen in these two examples.
When you use the button, Gemini will give you some suggested questions, such as getting a summary, but you are free to ask any questions you want about the content. That includes asking about things that are not actually in the video, since of course the knowledge contained in the Gemini model is present and correct.
It’s a real time saver for tutorials.
Or at least a good companion
In tutorial videos, when I ask “give me the steps described in the video,” I usually get a bulleted list of steps, but more importantly, they include clickable timestamps. After all, the only reason to watch a video tutorial is not only to know the steps, but also to see how something is done so you can learn vicariously.
My wife and I want to build a pond in the yard, so I used the ask button on a Video tutorial on patio pond and this is what the result looks like.
I don’t want to use this feature to watch the video, I want to use it to guide me to the right places within the video and help me get the most out of the content.
You can try the Gemini question button right now in the video below, although you’ll have to open it on YouTube to watch it. For now, the button does not appear in the embedded player, as you can see.
Where it still falls short
All common AI mistakes apply
While this is a great feature for me as a YouTube viewer most of the time, like most AI tools that use LLM technology, there are serious caveats.
First, it can only work with video content. Therefore, if the tutorial is inaccurate or incomplete, a summary of that content will be equally flawed. I’ve tried asking Gemini if the content of a video has any factual problems and it tries to give me a coherent answer, but this has the same problems as relying on AI to fact check in general.
- Subscription with ads
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No, all without advertising
- live television
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No
For $14 a month, you get ad-free videos, YouTube Music, and offline video downloads.
Which raises the second problem: hallucinations. LLMs may invent details that do not exist in the original content. If you’ve never seen the video in question, then you have no way of knowing if this is the case or not. Therefore, it makes sense to take advantage of those timestamps.
I’m also concerned that the chatbot will decide that certain subtle insights or warnings in the video are not important enough to be included in the summary. These details are small, but if the person who made the tutorial is an expert, they are usually included for a reason.
Google has the usual disclaimer about how AI can make mistakes at the bottom of the chat box, but in this specific scenario I suggest you take it seriously.
As a YouTuber, I’m a little worried.
I’ve been a YouTuber for half a decade at this point, host a technology channel and more niche and experimental content. Like all creators, I want people to watch my videos. The evolution of YouTube’s algorithm over the years has already pushed me to become relentlessly efficient. If you read the comments under my most popular tech videos, you’ll see people thanking me for getting to the point quickly or for having as little nonsense as possible.
My fear is that, as Google’s AI summaries in your search enginethis Gemini Ask feature will simply prevent people from viewing the content. It’s not yet clear how this affects creator monetization, but if it has a negative effect, we will see less content. With less content, in the end, what will the ask button have to summarize?
