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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The free TLDW makes use of AI to search out key moments in a YouTube video.
- You do not have to observe a whole video simply to catch one second.
- You can even chat with the AI to ask questions concerning the video.
Ever needed to watch a prolonged YouTube video simply to discover a particular second? If solely there have been some strategy to minimize to the chase so that you would not should undergo the whole video. That is the concept behind a brand new and free AI-based software created by a trio of designers and builders.
TLDW (Too Lengthy; Did not Watch) analyzes YouTube movies and highlights key moments from them. The software shows hyperlinks to every key second so you possibly can rapidly bounce to any of them and watch simply the particular clip. A transcript reveals you the textual content of the spoken audio; deciding on a particular second highlights its textual content within the transcript. Better of all, you possibly can chat with the built-in AI to ask particular questions concerning the video.
Getting began with TLDW
Browse to YouTube and open a video you need analyzed. Copy the URL for the video. Head to the TLDW web site and paste the URL into the textual content discipline. Select whether or not you need the evaluation to be Good or Quick. The Good mode makes use of a extra clever mannequin with increased high quality however takes time to generate. The Quick mode is not fairly as good however takes much less time to complete.
The outcomes break down the video into totally different classes or matters. Deciding on a particular class shows all its key moments and reveals how lengthy every clip runs. Click on any key second to observe that part within the video.
You may then flip to the transcript to view the spoken audio and the chat space to strike up a dialog concerning the video. You are additionally capable of spotlight any textual content within the transcript or chat to reserve it as a word. Click on your account icon on the higher proper to entry previous movies and key moments, in addition to your notes.
TLDW is free to make use of; nonetheless, you get solely a few tries earlier than it prompts you to arrange an account. After creating an account, you are ready to make use of the software as much as 5 occasions per day.
My expertise with TLDW
I attempted TLDW with just a few totally different YouTube movies. One was of famed science fiction creator Arthur C. Clarke providing predictions of the longer term. One other was a have a look at the movie “The Cat and the Canary,” a silent horror film produced at Common in 1927. A 3rd served up 20 belongings you did not find out about Monty Python.
With the Arthur C. Clarke video, I used to be capable of zero in on a particular clip during which he spoke about suspended animation as the important thing to time journey. Within the case of the Monty Python video, one key second defined how a programmer adopted the phrase spam based mostly on a well-known sketch of the British comedy troupe.
I particularly favored the chat operate, as I used to be capable of ask related questions, to which the AI offered complete solutions. I might even spotlight particular textual content from the transcript and inform the AI to clarify it. Doing so generated additional fascinating questions that I might pose.
What’s TLDW’s story?
I chatted by electronic mail with developer Zara Zhang, who constructed the software with Samuel Zhang, a pc science pupil, and Yiqi Yan because the designer.
To investigate movies on YouTube, TLDW makes use of Google Gemini as its LLM (giant language mannequin). The software grabs the video transcript after which makes use of AI to extract essentially the most insightful or distinguished moments. To find out these key moments, the AI makes use of its personal judgment based mostly on the mannequin and the immediate. However sometimes, it appears at totally different opinions expressed within the video, refreshing insights, and memorable anecdotes.
Zhang instructed me that the software was impressed by the crew’s personal ache factors when making an attempt to be taught from prolonged YouTube movies.
“I’ve discovered lengthy YouTube movies to be one of the best sources to study AI, however many individuals haven’t got the eye span to sit down via lengthy movies from begin to end,” Zhang stated. “At the moment, many individuals get AI to generate a textual content abstract of the video, however we imagine that is not a great method. Video is supposed to be consumed as video; there may be lots of visible info (e.g., product demos, slides, speaker’s vibes and dynamics), that are misplaced if you convert video to textual content.”
As a substitute, TLDW rapidly jumps to one of the best components of a video. And although the software offers a transcript of the video, Zhang stated that the crew believes personalised spotlight reels are a greater answer than a generic textual content abstract.
“Additionally, after I’m watching technical movies, I typically need the technical jargon defined in context, and copying and pasting into Google or Perplexity was cumbersome,” Zhang added. “So we constructed a function the place customers can choose any time period within the transcript, and AI will clarify it in context.”
Capturing notes concerning the video can be an enormous profit. As a substitute of getting to pause, rewind, and sort out a quote manually, you possibly can simply choose textual content within the transcript and reserve it as a word.
What does the longer term maintain?
“We plan to make it much more personalised and likewise make it simpler to entry (e.g., including a browser extension to permit folks to save lots of YouTube movies to TLDW simply),” Zhang defined. “We’re planning on including a ‘share quote’ function so folks can simply share video quotes to social media as pictures.”
