YouTube is turning into an answer engine with a new conversational search feature

YouTube Premium subscribers in the US (18 years and older) have something new to play with. As reported by The Verge, the company is testing a conversational AI search experience called Ask YouTube that is unlike anything YouTube has offered before. So what exactly is Ask YouTube? Instead of typing keywords into a search bar and hoping for the best, you can now ask YouTube a full question and get a response that feels more like a conversation. You can enable this feature using YouTube’s experimental feature. Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends Once you do, you will notice an Ask YouTube button built into the YouTube search bar. When you click the search bar, YouTube surfaces suggested prompts like “What caused the 2008 financial crisis?” or “How to fix a stripped screw.” These might be trending searches or based on your own YouTube history. Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends You can either search for these trending search terms or enter your own search term and hit the Ask YouTube button to perform the search. When I searched for “prisoners’ dilemma”, YouTube gave me a text overview followed by a featured video. Recommended Videos (function(){let containerEl=document.getElementById('dt-cnx-container-69f075d0d8f1e');const deletePlayer=()=>{if(containerEl){containerEl.remove();containerEl=null}};if(!window.DT_RELATED_PLAYER_PROVIDER){deletePlayer();return} const iasAnId=decodeURIComponent('927851');if(!window.dtCNXReady){const loadIAS=()=>{return new Promise((resolve)=>{const e=document.createElement('script');e.src='https://static.adsafeprotected.com/vans-adapter-google-ima.js';e.onload=()=>{resolve()};document.head.appendChild(e)})};const loadCNX=()=>{return new Promise((resolve)=>{!function(n){if(!window.cnx){window.cnx={},window.cnx.cmd=[];var t=n.createElement('iframe');t.src='javascript:false';t.style.display='none',t.onload=function(){var n=t.contentWindow.document,c=n.createElement('script');c.onload=function(){window.dtCNXIframe=t;resolve()};c.src='//cd.connatix.com/connatix.player.js?cid=2a2352ef-fe98-483c-8897-aef587823f13',c.setAttribute('async','1'),c.setAttribute('type','text/javascript'),n.body.appendChild(c)};if(document.readyState!=='loading'){n.body.appendChild(t)}else{n.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){n.body.appendChild(t)})}}}(document)})};window.dtCNXReady=()=>{if(!window.dtCNXReadyPromise){window.dtCNXReadyPromise=new Promise((resolve)=>{Promise.all([iasAnId?loadIAS():Promise.resolve(),]).then(()=>loadCNX()).then(()=>{resolve()})})} return window.dtCNXReadyPromise}} const disableFloating=()=>{let playerAPI=window.DTConnatixPlayers&&window.DTConnatixPlayers['dt-cnx-player-69f075d0d8f1d'];if(playerAPI){playerAPI.disableFloatingMode()}else{DTEvent.on('dt-connatix-player-ready',()=>{playerAPI=window.DTConnatixPlayers['dt-cnx-player-69f075d0d8f1d'];if(playerAPI){playerAPI.disableFloatingMode()}})}};window.dtDampenPlayerCallbacks=window.dtDampenPlayerCallbacks||{};window.dtDampenPlayerCallbacks['dt-cnx-player-69f075d0d8f1d']=deletePlayer;const lazyLoad=()=>{return new Promise((resolve)=>{if(containerEl&&window.IntersectionObserver){const observer=new IntersectionObserver((entries)=>{if(entries[0].isIntersecting){observer.disconnect();if(containerEl){window.dtDampenPlayerCallbacks['dt-cnx-player-69f075d0d8f1d']=disableFloating;resolve()}}},{rootMargin:'300px'});observer.observe(containerEl)}})};Promise.resolve().then(()=>lazyLoad()).then(()=>window.dtCNXReady()).then(()=>{(new…

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