The field of medicine is rapidly experiencing transformation due to the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI not only has the potential to enhance health outcomes and medical research, but also offers the promise of improving the quality, quantity, and accessibility of health information for both patients and healthcare professionals.
YouTube has become a popular platform where people seek health and wellness content, from learning about symptoms to connecting with others on similar health journeys. To ensure that users can easily find high-quality health content, YouTube has developed products like health information and personal stories shelves. These products aim to make reliable health information accessible to everyone.
AI plays a crucial role in scaling these products, and there are opportunities to further leverage AI to make public health truly accessible to all. Here are three ways in which AI can promote authoritative health content, facilitate content sharing in multiple languages, and assist health creators in producing engaging content.
Advancing Authoritative Health Content
AI has long been utilized to curate YouTube’s search results and Watch Next panels, ensuring that the most relevant content is surfaced for viewers. When it comes to health information, it is essential to prioritize content from authoritative sources.
YouTube has collaborated with organizations such as the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Health Service to incorporate principles for promoting credible sources of health information. These principles guide the display of locally relevant authoritative health information in search results and the use of video labels to indicate if content is from a licensed health professional or accredited institution. Additionally, medical professionals in certain countries can seek a health label to ensure that their content is eligible for inclusion in authoritative health features.
Overcoming Language Barriers with AI
As a global platform, YouTube Health aims to address the language needs of diverse audiences. To facilitate this, YouTube Health is working with select health content creators to pilot an AI-powered dubbing tool called Aloud, which simplifies and accelerates the dubbing process at no additional cost to content creators. This tool enables the dissemination of essential health information in multiple languages, breaking down language barriers.
YouTube Health will collaborate with clinicians to review translations and ensure that creators have full control over their dubbed videos.
Empowering the Global Health Creator Community
Health creators face the challenge of effectively conveying evolving scientific information while creating engaging and accessible content. To support creators in this endeavor, AI technologies such as MedLM, developed by Google Research, can assist in the creative and information retrieval processes. YouTube Health is exploring the responsible use of AI tools to enable creators to produce high-quality, engaging health content.
The responsible implementation of AI has the potential to positively impact the health and well-being of billions. Through generative AI, it is possible to efficiently scale high-quality and accurate health content across languages and geographical locations at a low cost.
In collaboration with the creator community and partners, YouTube Health is committed to democratising access to health information in a responsible manner.