A Preliminary Exploration of YouTubers' Use of Generative-AI in Content Creation
It addresses an underexplored area of AI usage in user-generated content, but is preliminary and incremental.
This study explored how YouTube content creators use generative AI tools by qualitatively analyzing 68 videos, identifying content domains, tools, activities, and final products.
Content creators increasingly utilize generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and various blogging sites to produce imaginative images, AI-generated videos, and articles using Large Language Models (LLMs). Despite its growing popularity, there remains an underexplored area concerning the specific domains where AI-generated content is being applied, and the methodologies content creators employ with Gen-AI tools during the creation process. This study initially explores this emerging area through a qualitative analysis of 68 YouTube videos demonstrating Gen-AI usage. Our research focuses on identifying the content domains, the variety of tools used, the activities performed, and the nature of the final products generated by Gen-AI in the context of user-generated content.