Artists and celebrities worried about AI-generated deepfakes of themselves can take a little comfort from YouTube, which has begun rolling out a detection tool for AI-generated likenesses of people.

The video streaming platform has been developing the tool in partnership with Creative Artists Agency, suggesting that one of its functions eventually will be to recognize celebrity deepfakes.

However, for now the tool is limited to a specific set of creators with YouTube channels, and will be rolled out to all creators in the YouTube Partner Program in the coming months, PC Mag reported.

YouTube notified select creators on its platform of the rollout of the tool by email on Tuesday (October 21), according to a report at The Verge.

The tool is similar to YouTube’s Content ID system, which scans the YouTube library for copyrighted content in order to compensate rightsholders. The deepfake detection tool works on the same principle, but seeks to detect recognizable faces used without permission.

In a video posted on Tuesday, YouTube said creators will be able to review flagged videos in the Content Detection tab of YouTube Studio and submit a request for removal if they believe the video is a deepfake, or otherwise violates YouTube’s terms of service.

To be able to use the tool, creators will have to provide photo ID and a short video of themselves. Several days after signing up, creators should start seeing flagged videos in the Content Detection tab, where they will have options as to how to respond, including filing a removal request, filing a copyright infringement request, or taking no action.

In the video, YouTube made it clear its primary purpose with the tool is to protect the reputation and commercial interests of creators on its platform. The tool will allow creators to “protect your viewers by keeping the audience from being misled about what you endorse and what you don’t,” YouTube said.

“There is a chance you may not see matches if altered or synthetic content with your face are barely or never uploaded to YouTube. This is completely normal and indicates that we haven’t detected unauthorized use of your visual likeness on the platform. And we hope that brings you peace of mind,” YouTube said.

“You will be able to send a removal request for review under YouTube’s privacy guidelines and protect your viewers by keeping your audience from being misled about what you endorse and what you don’t.”

YouTube

YouTube has not disclosed if or when it plans to expand the tool beyond creators on the platform. However, that’s the expectation, given that YouTube partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) last December, giving certain high-profile people the ability to “provide critical feedback to help us build our detection systems,” YouTube said at the time.

The detection tool is one of a series of steps that YouTube has taken in recent years to mitigate the risks that come with generative AI. Last year, the platform changed its privacy policies to allow members of the public to file removal requests on videos that imitate their voice or likeness.

YouTube also developed a mechanism for rights holders to request takedowns of videos they believe “mimic an artist’s unique singing or rapping voice.”

At the same time, YouTube and its parent company, Google, have been among the most active companies developing AI technology. Earlier this year, YouTube rolled out a new AI music tool that can generate copyright-free soundtracks for videos. The company is also testing an AI music host feature to rival Spotify’s AI DJ.

YouTube signed a deal with Universal Music Group in 2023 to develop AI tools, complete with protections for rights holders. According to a 2024 report at the Financial Times, YouTube was in talks with the major record companies to license their music for AI training, but those efforts were slowed by a lack of willing artists.Music Business Worldwide

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“I like to ask entrepreneurs a question: ‘Why does your company deserve to exist?’” Chesky revealed on stage at the Masters of Scale Summit. 

“The best kind of generic answer I’ve ever heard is, ‘Because if I don’t do it, no one else will.’ And I like to ask that question of myself, ‘What could we uniquely do that if we don’t do it, anyone else will?’”

Chesky has been open about the trials and tribulations of scaling his startup into the giant it is today—including that it can be an extremely isolating experience. It’s why, he said, it’s important that budding business leaders be closely connected to their work’s purpose. If they lose sight of why their company deserves to exist—or are just blindly following a business wave—then it could get lost in a crowded industry of passionate, innovative entrepreneurs. 

“I think that [entrepreneurs] should ask, ‘If you never existed, what would be different about the world? What is your unique imprint to do?’” Chesky continued, adding that too many aspiring founders chase trends. “I think business leaders should focus on a unique contribution they can make.”

Leaders at Amazon, Starbucks, and Perplexity have advice for aspiring entrepreneurs 

Chesky is one of many unicorn founders passing down their words of wisdom—and caution—to the next cohort of Fortune 500 leaders. 

Jeff Bezos, founder of $2 trillion e-commerce giant Amazon, relayed a hard truth to Gen Z entrepreneurs: it isn’t always the best choice to drop out of an Ivy League school and launch a business, like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Not everyone is guaranteed that their sacrifices will lead to a billion-dollar innovation. Instead, Bezos pointed to his own career journey as a good model for success: go to college, get a normal job, then chase the entrepreneurial daydreams later after having soaked in plenty of knowledge from the business world.

“I started Amazon when I was 30, not when I was 20, and I think that that extra 10 years of experience actually improved the odds that Amazon would succeed,” Bezos said.

Howard Schultz, the longtime former CEO of $96 billion coffee giant Starbucks, echoed Bezos’ advice that bushy-tailed entrepreneurs shouldn’t jump the gun on starting a business. They should spend part of their careers clocking in, and working under a boss—it’ll give them a peek under the hood of what’s to come.

“At 22, you would benefit from working for a company that can teach you and demonstrate to you how an organization works—as long as that company has values that are compatible with your own,” Schultz told Fortune last year. “There’s great benefit to being in an organization and seeing firsthand how a company actually operates, and what happens on the inside, before you do this yourself.”

The cofounder and CEO of $18 billion AI company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, advises entrepreneurs to pair a deep sense of purpose with speed because if they move slowly, a competitor could beat them to the punch—no matter how passionate they are.

“You should assume that if you have a big hit, if your company is something that can make revenue on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars or potentially billions of dollars, you should always assume that a model company will copy it,” Srinivas said at Y Combinator’s AI Startup School earlier this year. 

“You’ve got to live with that fear and you have to embrace it. Realize that your mode comes from moving fast and building your own identity around what you’re doing because users at the end care.”