YouTube CEO says 'Using AI for training is against the rules' and 'What's important is that creators succeed on YouTube'

In an interview with Bloomberg's Emily Chang, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said that if OpenAI's video generation AI 'Sora,' released in February 2024, was trained using YouTube videos, it would be a violation of the rules.

YouTube Says OpenAI Training Sora With Its Videos Would Break Rules - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-04/youtube-says-openai-training-sora-with-its-videos-would-break-the-rules

YouTube CEO @nealmohan tells me exclusively — if OpenAI is using YouTube videos to train Sora, that would be a “clear violation” of their policies (with @daveyalba ) https://t.co/0eDTYdPTJ3 pic.twitter.com/u8S9y3wPf2

— Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) April 4, 2024

A video of the remarks has been posted on Bloomberg's YouTube channel and can be viewed.

YouTube Says Using Videos to Train OpenAI's Sora Breaks Rules - YouTube


During the interview, Chang asked, 'OpenAI CTO Mira Moradi did not give a clear answer when asked what data was used to train Sora. Do you think YouTube was used to train Sora?'

In response, Mohan initially avoided a direct answer, saying, 'I don't have any information about whether it was used, so I think it's best to ask OpenAI directly.'

But when Chan pressed him again, saying, 'If this were to be done, wouldn't that be a violation of our policies?' he replied, 'YouTube has clear terms of service. From a creator's perspective, they have an expectation that these terms will be followed when they upload their hard work to YouTube. We make video titles, creator names and YouTube channel names available because this is how content appears on the open web, including in search engines. Downloading content or transcripts is a violation of the rules for content on our platform.'

In his response, Mohan did not name OpenAI's Sora, nor did he use the term 'training an AI.' However, since training involves downloading content, Bloomberg headlined the article, 'Downloading content for training an AI is a violation of the rules.'

Chang also asked how Google uses YouTube for Gemini training, to which Mohan replied that it is based on terms of service and individual contracts.

Mohan then stated, 'When we think about how AI technology will be applied to YouTube, the core of it is ultimately about creators being successful on YouTube and building magical experiences for their viewers,' demonstrating a creator-first approach.