Last summer, YouTube ran an experiment: It had AI select segments of videos to answer users’ searches, like for the “best beaches in Hawaii,” and stitched them into slideshows. In traditional YouTube searches, viewers would see a simple list of videos based on a wide variety of factors, sometimes including a customer’s prior preferences. With the AI slideshows, viewers were getting responses based on what content or information was in the videos, unconnected to a viewer’s habits or interests in specific creators. This version of YouTube search launched to US Premium subscribers in June 2025, expanded in August — and then quietly vanished. But all of that threatens the pipeline of new content from humans — which, YouTube keeps finding, is what its viewers want.