YouTube on Friday, May 16, announced that it is expanding access to its AI-powered likeness detection programme to all users over the age of 18, meaning that anyone on the platform will now be able to take action against potential AI-generated deepfakes of themselves.
Based on a selfie-style scan of a user’s face, YouTube’s likeness detection tool monitors the entire platform for lookalikes. If the tool finds a match, an alert is sent to the user whose likeness has potentially been detected. The user then has the option to request YouTube to take down the flagged content.
The announcement was made by YouTube on its creator forum. It marks a significant shift as the average person now has the ability to constantly monitor content on YouTube that could use their likeness. While most AI-generated deepfakes on social media platforms attempt to target celebrities, politicians, and other public figures, the ability to create and share AI-generated deepfakes of individual users has also been a concern as well.
“With this expansion, we’re making clear that whether creators have been uploading to YouTube for a decade or are just starting, they’ll have access to the same level of protection,” YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon was quoted as saying by The Vergeadding that there are no requirements on what constitutes a “creator” who is eligible to use the likeness detection tool.
First released in October 2025 for creators the option to find content where their “face may have been altered or generated by AI” to more users, YouTube then expanded it to government officials, politicians, journalists, and finally the entertainment industry.
The Google-owned video-sharing platform said that the likeness detection tool works similarly to content ID, but instead of copyrighted content, it searches for a person’s likeness. When a creator uploads their face when setting up the tool, YouTube’s system will scan uploads of new videos that may contain faces of other individuals to identify their faces.
However, the company has cautioned users that the tool “may display videos featuring your actual face, not altered or synthetic versions.” For example, one may come across short clips of their YouTube videos, which are not removable under privacy policies. To use the new feature, open YouTube Studio, and in the left menu, click on Content Detectiontap on ‘Likeness’ and press the ‘Start now’ button
