YouTube had a humble beginning, but the platform has come a long way since.
At the Cannes Lions Festival on June 18, 2025, CEO Neal Mohan marked YouTube’s 20th anniversary by reflecting on its evolution—from the simple upload of “Me at the Zoo” by a co-founder to becoming a global platform where anyone can create and influence.
Mohan said that traditional television viewing is shifting—over 1 billion hours of YouTube content are watched daily on TVs, and more than half of the platform’s top 100 channels now get most of their views from Connected TV. YouTube also hosts about a billion podcast viewers monthly, and that its AI-powered auto-dubbing feature has been used on over 20 million videos, helping creators translate their work across languages.
YouTube Shorts now see over 200 billion daily views, a huge increase from the 70 billion reported the year before.
As its short-form content grows, YouTube plans to expand its tools to support easier and more creative production—particularly for creators who may not have had access to traditional media resources.
Looking ahead, Mohan announced that Veo 3, the video-generation AI from Google DeepMind, shall soon be integrated into Shorts. According to Mohan in a blog post:
"Today, I’m proud to share that Veo 3 will be coming to YouTube Shorts later this summer."
"I believe these tools will open new creative lanes for everyone to explore. But what’s even more exciting than what you see on the screen, is how AI is helping creatives behind the scenes."
The tool is expected to let creators generate backgrounds and clips, building on Dream Screen. AI-powered auto-dubbing, already in use, has dubbed more than 20 million videos since launch, helping content cross language barriers.
At this time, Shorts creators can already take advantage of the previous-generation Veo 2 model to generate backgrounds with Dream Screen as well as standalone clips.
While Mohan didn’t specify exactly what Veo 3 will become available in Shorts, but he did mention Veo 3’s improved video quality and its ability to incorporate audio can "open new creative lanes for everyone to explore."
Following the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, the rise of AI-generated content is becoming more evident. And this time, particularly with the introduction of tools like Veo 3, generative AI on YouTube should reshape how people express their creativity.
While the output from these models can look visually impressive, the real challenge remains in storytelling. Access to advanced tools doesn't automatically result in quality content—strong ideas, humor, and originality are still the most important elements. As a result, it's likely that audiences will be exposed to a large volume of mediocre AI-generated videos before the value of creativity becomes more apparent.
Still, the expansion of these AI tools opens up opportunities for a broader range of creators, including those who may not have had access to advanced production resources before.
It lowers the technical barriers, making it easier for anyone to participate in content creation, even if that also means an increase in low-effort or repetitive output.
It also increases the efforts to differentiate what's real and what's AI-generated, meaning that fake information should disseminate faster than ever before.