YouTube is testing new artificial intelligence (AI) features in Shorts, its one-minute vertical video format. Called Dream Screen, the feature adds a custom, AI-generated green screen image to your video. This feature is aimed at users who prefer to use creative backgrounds to stand out from their videos or match the theme of the video content. This is an experimental feature from the video streaming giant and is currently only available to a select group of Shorts creators.
Add AI background feature to YouTube Shorts
The Google-owned video sharing platform posted about the feature on its support page on Monday. The company said it is “experimenting with Dream Screen, a new feature that uses AI to generate green screen background images for Shorts videos.” YouTube did not specify which AI model was used for this feature.
When users access Dream Screen, they can write a text prompt in the background explaining what they want to do. Highlighting one example, according to the post, a user can request “a nice hotel pool on a tropical island” and the AI will instantly generate it. Once created, you can add it to your video background.
The short post described the functionality but left many aspects of the functionality unexplained. For example, it doesn’t mention whether backgrounds need to be added during the recording phase or whether backgrounds can also be added to pre-recorded footage. It’s also unknown whether users will need a physical green screen to display the effect, or if they can add one digitally, similar to Google Meet. Notably, the company also did not specify any restrictions on AI image creation. These instructions will likely appear on the Dream Screen Features page.
As an experimental feature (one that Google is currently testing or in beta), Dream Screen is only available to a select group of Shorts creators. However, the company emphasized that the tool will be available to more creators later in 2023. Separately, the video streaming platform has made the Playables feature available to all users. It gives you access to over 75 different free games that were previously only available to YouTube Premium subscribers.
