Yelp Introduces AI-Generated Videos: A New Era of User-Generated Content

Yelp's Innovative AI Video Feature

Yelp, the popular crowdsourced review platform, has launched a groundbreaking AI-powered video feature that transforms user-generated content into engaging short-form videos about restaurants and other businesses 1

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. This innovative technology, which began testing last year, is now being rolled out nationwide on the iOS app's vertically scrolling home feed 3

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How the AI Videos Work

The AI-stitched videos utilize large language models to extract text from user reviews and convert it into AI-voiced narration, courtesy of ElevenLabs, with captions provided by Amazon Transcribe 1

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. Yelp then combines this with uploaded photos and video clips from user reviews to create a slideshow-like presentation of the establishment's offerings 2

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The process involves multiple AI tools:

• OpenAI LLMs for writing text descriptions, narrator's scripts, and proofreading
• ElevenLabs for generating the narrator's voice
• Amazon Transcribe for creating synchronized on-screen captions 3

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Privacy Concerns and Content Control

The introduction of this feature has raised several privacy and content control issues:

1. Users cannot opt out of having their reviews or photos used in these AI-generated videos 1

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2. Businesses have no preview or input options for the AI videos generated about their establishments 2

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3. There is currently only one active AI-stitched video about a single business at a time 3

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User and Business Impact

Yelp's Chief Product Officer, Craig Saldanha, stated that the company aims to create "as many videos as possible," but will only do so if a business has sufficient reviews, photos, and videos to tell a compelling story 3

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. The videos are not personalized but are periodically refreshed as new content becomes available 5

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For businesses, these AI-generated videos could potentially lead to increased visitor traffic 4

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. Users benefit from a quick and easy way to get an overview of various places, with better-quality uploaded content having a higher chance of appearing in the feed 4

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Content Moderation and Reporting

To address potential issues with the AI-generated content, Yelp has implemented the following measures:

1. Users can report videos as inaccurate or containing offensive content 1

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2. Yelp conducts periodic audits of the videos at scale 3

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3. Users and businesses can report problematic videos by tapping the three dots in the top right corner of the video display 4

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As this new feature continues to roll out, it remains to be seen how users and businesses will adapt to this AI-driven approach to content creation and whether Yelp will address the privacy concerns raised by its implementation.