YouTube has taken a significant step towards addressing the concerns of its creators by introducing a new feature that gives them control over how third-party companies use their content to train AI models. Starting today, creators and rights holders can flag specific third-party AI companies to train models on their content, or opt-out entirely.

The new feature, accessible through the YouTube Studio dashboard, allows creators to select from a list of 18 authorized companies, including AI21 Labs, Adobe, Amazon, and Apple, among others. These companies were chosen due to their involvement in building generative AI models and their potential for partnership with creators. Additionally, creators can choose to permit all third-party companies to train on their data, or restrict access entirely.

This move comes in response to the growing concerns of YouTube creators, who have complained that companies have been training AI models on their material without their consent or compensation. The issue gained prominence with the rise of AI technology, particularly AI video, and YouTube had promised to address the issue in the near future.

Notably, the new setting does not change YouTube's Terms of Service, which prohibit third parties from accessing creator content in unauthorized ways, such as scraping. However, the feature does provide creators with more control over how their content is used, and potentially opens up opportunities for compensation in the future.

YouTube has stated that Google will continue to train its own AI models on some YouTube content, in accordance with its existing agreement with creators. The company also plans to introduce further features in the future, including allowing authorized companies to access direct downloads of creator videos.

The default setting for all creators will be to not allow third-party training, making it clear to companies that have already done so that they acted without the creators' consent. YouTube was unable to comment on whether the new setting would have any retroactive impact on existing AI model training.

This development is part of YouTube's broader efforts to address AI-related concerns. In September, the company announced new AI detection tools aimed at helping creators, artists, and others protect their likenesses and intellectual property from being copied and used in other videos.

Creators globally will be notified of the new feature through banner notifications in YouTube Studio on desktop and mobile over the next few days. This move is expected to have significant implications for the future of AI development and content creation on the platform.

As AI technology continues to advance, the issue of content ownership and usage rights is likely to remain a pressing concern. YouTube's new feature is a step in the right direction, providing creators with more control over their work and potentially paving the way for new revenue streams. However, it remains to be seen how the feature will be implemented and received by the creator community, and what further developments will arise in this space.