YouTube says it wants to ‘focus on originality’ in a push to surface better Shorts recommendations for users.

Shorts is built on quick and attention-grabbing content, which makes cutting portions of long-form videos one of the easiest ways to put out quick videos with high view potential. Of course, that also means channels can just as easily take content from other established creators and stamp out short-form videos from it.

YouTube says it’s adjusted its Shorts recommendations so users will see less unoriginal content. Users who upload content that blatantly steals video from another channel will not get the same reach as they did before the change, according to what YouTube laid out in its release.

To improve the Shorts experience for everyone, we’re updating our recommendation systems to further prioritize original content and reduce the reach of content re-uploaded from other creators without adding anything of your own.

There’s a small amount of room for interpretation. YouTube’s language seems to imply that Shorts that contain no changes form another’s work would be affected, but no clear line in the sand has been drawn out.

Remember, YouTube announced it was testing a new feature that would let users reimagine other channels’ videos using AI, which was released in March. Whether those videos will still be surfaced in the recommendations system is unclear.

The change should mean users will see a focus on original content, and creators that upload original Shorts will likely be rewarded. YouTube hasn’t detailed a rollout date for this change, but it sounds like it may be live already.

Have you noticed a change in your YouTube Shorts recommendations?

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