YouTube will let you build your own algorithm with AI
TechCrunch Sarah Perez ● Covered by 4 sources
YouTube is adding custom feeds you describe in your own words. It’s AI-built, pinned to your home page, and starts rolling out next month.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Sarah Perez — read the original for the full story.
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YouTube is handing users a new way to steer recommendations without pretending the algorithm has suddenly become less opinionated. On Wednesday, the company announced custom feeds: a feature that lets people type what they want to watch into a prompt box and get a feed built around that request.
The idea is simple. Want a feed of video podcasts for a train commute? Ask for it. Want something tuned to a mood, like relaxing commentary videos? Ask for that too. You can also get more specific about what should be included, excluded, or prioritized, because the feed is generated with Google’s Gemini AI model rather than a fixed set of filters.
The result shows up pinned at the top of the YouTube home page in its own tab. It doesn’t replace the main recommendations feed, which still serves the usual mix. Instead, it gives you another doorway into YouTube’s gigantic archive, or at least YouTube’s own pitch for what that archive can do when you stop asking for one feed to rule them all.
Emily Moxley, YouTube’s VP of Product Management for Viewer AI, framed the feature as a response to scale. She said there are more than 20 billion videos in the YouTube corpus, and that users are “one search away from a treasure trove of topics.” The company says support for multiple custom feeds will roll out across web and mobile starting next month.
YouTube is also joining a pattern that’s already spread across social apps. Bluesky pushed feed-building early, then added its AI tool Attie this year. Meta’s Threads, Instagram, X, and Spotify have all shipped their own versions too, many with AI in the loop. The new trick isn’t really the feed. It’s who gets to write the rules for it.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the obvious next move for platforms that know their default feed can feel like a junk drawer. Letting people describe the feed they want is smart, but it also says the old “personalization” pitch was never personal enough. The real competition now is who can make algorithm control feel less like a dashboard and more like a conversation.
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