YouTube Shorts lets creators make photorealistic AI avatars from a “live selfie,” powered by Veo

What’s new?

YouTube is rolling out a new Shorts feature that lets creators generate photorealistic AI avatars of themselves — face and voice — using a short “live selfie” recording. Want to be in a clip without being on camera? Now you can. The avatar system, powered by Google’s Veo models, creates short prompt-driven clips (each up to eight seconds) that can be stitched together to make longer content. The voice element is brand-new to this setup; similar image-based tricks have been available through ingredients-to-video since last year, but talking replicas are a fresh move.

How it works

The creation flow is built into the main YouTube app and YouTube Create. Users record a short selfie video and read prompts to capture voice and facial motion; you only need to do the setup once and can re-record later to update your look. To use it, open Create (+) in the app, tap the Gemini spark, choose “Create video” and pick “Make a video with my avatar,” or find it in Remix > Reimagine > Add me to this scene. Clips are prompt-based and short by design, but you can produce multiple clips back-to-back. Rolling rollout starts today globally (outside Europe) for 18+ users who already own a YouTube channel.

Safety, labels and the trade-offs

It has been reported that YouTube says the selfie video and voice are used only to build your avatar and that no one else can use your avatar to make original Shorts; you can delete the avatar anytime, and YouTube will auto-delete it after three years of inactivity. Existing videos containing your avatar will remain unless you delete the clip. All avatar outputs will carry watermarks and digital provenance labels — SynthID, C2PA and AI disclosures — to flag synthetic media. Sounds reassuring, but this is a classic double-edged sword: creators gain convenience and privacy, while platforms and viewers wrestle with deepfake risks. Black Mirror-style dystopia? Maybe not yet. But are you ready to clone your on-screen self?

Sources: 9to5google.com