YouTube

Following its debut in August, Google is widely pushing YouTube’s AI age verification this week as many users are reporting their accounts have been restricted.

Over the past month or so, many YouTubers have been reporting major drops to their video view counts. Theories have run wild, but there’s one explanation involving ad blockers that makes the most sense, but YouTube isn’t confirming anything directly.

At Made on YouTube 2025, Live streaming got several notable updates for both Creators and audiences alike.

At Made on YouTube 2025, the Google video site announced a slew of new AI features that Creators will soon be able to use. Here’s what’s new for YouTube Music and Podcasts. 

We’ve recently seen a number of posts online complaining about YouTube’s algorithm, with some users seeing just downright awful video recommendations. In truth, YouTube’s recommendation system may not be the issue, and it’s easy to address if you’re seeing sketchy suggested content.

There has been a buzz around a not-so-new initiative from Google and YouTube that would put age verification in the hands of AI, and it’s rolling out in just a few days. The new system will determine whether users are 18 or not, and it’s being put in place next week. Before that, there are a few things to know.

The most recent in the list of seemingly random YouTube bugs is an app issue that made the subscriptions page invisible, with no new or old videos to be seen. YouTube says it has fixed this issue for Android and iOS users.

YouTube has a couple of new updates for both creators and viewers, with the introduction of AI-powered protections for teen viewers launching just as the site rolls back some of its more controversial profanity restrictions.

YouTube is starting to implement GenAI into its Shorts creation hub, with new features like photo-to-video generation and an arsenal of AI-powered video effects powered by the company’s second-best generation model. Not to mention, YouTube’s new AI Playground adds full-on content generation.

YouTube launched the Trending page in 2015, and is now planning to retire it as people’s viewing and discovery habits have changed.

YouTube is rolling out, or at least widely testing, a new video player design for its web experience that feels much different.

The AI takeover of search continues, with YouTube now testing out a nearly full-screen AI overview page for video search results.

YouTube is updating its live streaming age restrictions in July, but will still allow for younger teenagers to appear on the website when accompanied by an adult.

Google has reportedly cut Google TV’s budget by a significant margin. This comes as the company is preparing to bring Google Gemini to the platform later this year, as well as make a bigger push for improvements to YouTube.

YouTube continues its war on ad blockers, recently showing a notice that confirms videos are slightly slowed down for ad blocker users, while the platform is preparing for longer ad formats.

YouTube has no plans to quell AI content. In fact, it’s making it all the more possible to upload and view artificially produced videos with a dedicated Veo 3 integration in YouTube Shorts.