I have no idea why this is all necessary.
YouTube announced today that it's launching a live test of a new process that will give AI-powered reply suggestions to help creators engage with fans in the app.
So, here's what YouTube wrote about:

"We're testing new, AI-based comment reply suggestions that provide creators editable suggestions in their own voice and tone, making it more seamless for creators to interact with their viewers through comments. If you're a creator in the experiment, you'll begin to see these suggestions appear in the Comments tab or Community tab in Studio- depending on which version of the Studio experience you have-and on the YouTube mobile app."

So these reply suggestions will be generated by AI to be "in your tone and style," and YouTube's system will then learn from your previous engagements and start suggesting ideas on how you should respond to vide comments.

It isn't much of a difference from Gmail auto-complete suggestions, probably is, and it's pretty useful. But somehow it feels like the platforms try to find the way for generative AI to kill the soul of online activity, and offering suggestions of how to address people sounds like maybe it goes a bit too far, and spends unnecessary resources in using the technologies.

However, it could also save time. When you have a huge number of followers and your content is sparking many comments, then maybe auto-generated reply suggestions will be able to assist and make it easier for you to respond to an audience while elicit more activity from that particular audience.

I can imagine the benefits of it but again feels like something that shouldn't be automated if possible and that this shouldn't be an area where you are giving creators an easy option to post fake engagement.

I feel the same way about Meta's project enabling creators to build AI chatbots that respond in their style and voice. The whole value of social media is that it is social, and that you can engage with real people in these apps. The more we automate, the more of that we lose, and if it all just becomes bot responses to bot queries, people are only going to drift further into their own smaller chat groups and conversations.

Bots have always been a nuisance - from auto-replies to DMs to auto-engagement in-stream. They're usually obvious, and always a waste of space. And yet, now, the platforms are actively promoting this kind of engagement.

Because now, you can't spot one so easily with improved AI? Because it saves time, and makes people feel like they're being seen?

I don't know-I just don't think all of that needs to be automated, but I do also understand that the scale of work that some creators are dealing with could align with these tools in some way.

Either way, YouTube's comment reply suggestions will be just that, suggestions, and you'll be able to edit them if you do choose to use them.

YouTube stated the test is starting only with a small set of creators, to be expanded later on.