TLDW: How to Summarize YouTube Videos
Summarizing the Noisy YouTube Rabbit Hole to Uncover Signal
tl;dw — too long; didn’t watch
As we browse through YouTube, we’ve all fallen prey to clickbait titles that promise answers to our biggest questions, but rarely deliver. Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem, and it can also help save time spent on long, complex videos.
With the power of AI and Python, we can extract key information through summarization, helping us find the content we want and avoid the rest. This method leads to a more efficient and rewarding viewing experience.
Objective
By utilizing AI-generated summaries, we can efficiently tackle clickbait titles and complex videos, as demonstrated by two examples in this post. One showcases how to skip past clickbait, while the other summarizes a 40-minute video.
We’ll also learn how the YouTube Transcript API and OpenAI API can help simplify video content and show how you can utilize it in your own projects.
The Code: How to Summarize YouTube Videos
The following code assists us in comprehending the content of a YouTube video by breaking it down into concise summaries of 10-minute long episodes. After that, it takes the spoken words of each episode summary and produces an overall summary of the entire video.
Please feel free to open in Google Colab and try the code out for yourself.
Ultimately, this helps us decide if we want to watch the whole video by understanding what the content is about.
Example #1: Clickbait
Simplifying YouTube videos through concise summaries can save time and prevent irrelevant content, but clickbait titles and thumbnails are harmful. These titles can waste our time and expose us to inappropriate material, which can be frustrating for viewers.
Furthermore, they contribute to a culture of attention-seeking and sensationalism, leading to viewers feeling tricked into watching content they did not intend to. Therefore, we need to find ways to avoid clickbait and focus on valuable content.
Let’s prove out our solution by running a video with a clickbait thumbnail through our code.
AI Summary for “How to Make PASSIVE INCOME With ChatGPT &…”
The speaker provides a step-by-step guide to creating a storybook for kids that can generate passive income. He explains how to generate the story idea, outline, and content using AI technology, create illustrations using an AI art generator, and combine the text and images using Canva. He also provides instructions on how to publish the book on Amazon.
With this summary, you can now decide whether to click through or avoid this content — without being influenced by the clickbait thumbnail.
Example #2: Making Long and Complicated Videos Simpler
YouTube clickbait titles have become more common, making it harder for viewers to determine if a video is worth their time. Summarizing long and complex videos can save time and improve information retention and comprehension by presenting the main ideas in a more concise and digestible format.
One of my favorite YouTube videos features Philip K. Dick (PKD) discussing philosophy, religion, and science fiction, and presenting the concept of living in a programmed reality — also known as simulation theory.
In an attempt to better share PKD’s speech, I have run his 40-minute speech through the AI summarization code.
Here’s an example of using our code to help save you 40 minutes.
AI Summary for 40 Minute Long PKD Speech
This series of YouTube transcripts follows the protagonist as they explore the concept of orthogonal time, or a lateral domain in which change takes place outside of linear time. They also explore the idea that we are living in a computer-programmed reality, and that when variables are changed, alternative worlds are generated. The protagonist then remembers a different world from the one they are living in, one of enslavement and evil, and they believe that in the alternate world they did not live past March of 1974. They then recall their experience of being reprogrammed in 1974 and their encounter with a mysterious woman who reveals to them that some of their fictional works are in fact true. Finally, they discover a mysterious object called an Akrodyte, which seems to be connected to the person they are saying goodbye to.
Episode #1: where i am but i am sure that i am not there
In this episode, the speaker discusses the concept of orthogonal time, or a lateral domain in which change takes place outside of linear time. He uses the metaphor of a patron of the arts who has his servants hang a new picture each day, but when they run out of new pictures, they cleverly alter the existing one. He then extrapolates this to the idea of a lateral arrangement of worlds, in which a person can travel from worst to fair to good to excellent. He suggests that this could explain the puzzling utterances of Christ regarding the Kingdom of God, and that it is the mission of Christ to teach his disciples the secret of crossing along this orthogonal path.
Episode #2: reality
This episode of a YouTube transcript explores the idea that we are living in a computer-programmed reality, and that when variables are changed, alternative worlds are generated. It suggests that the programmer is constantly using the antecedent universe as a stockpile for each new synthesis, and that the process of creating alternate worlds is negantropic. It also suggests that the only way to prove this is to find someone who can remember a different reality.
Episode #3: world which i remember was a much more oppressive one
This episode of a YouTube transcript follows the story of a person who remembers a different world from the one they are living in. They remember a world of enslavement and evil, of prisons and jailers and ubiquitous police. They remember a world where the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 60s had failed and Richard Nixon was still in power. They remember a world where they were part of a secret group of Christians who fought against the powerful empire and helped overthrow it. They believe that in the alternate world they did not live past March of 1974. In this world, they are fighting a much lighter tyranny, or perhaps they have assistance from the anterior world.
Episode #4: [untitled]
This episode of a YouTube transcript follows the protagonist as they recall their experience of being reprogrammed in 1974 and their encounter with a mysterious woman who reveals to them that some of their fictional works are in fact true. They describe a beautiful garden world that they experienced, which is reminiscent of the Greco-Roman world, and the episode ends with the protagonist being closed off from this world.
Episode #5: know
In this episode, the protagonist is filled with a sense of loss as they watch someone they care about leave. They discover a mysterious object called an Akrodyte, which seems to be connected to the person they are saying goodbye to.
Conclusion
The use of AI summarization technology offers a powerful tool for navigating the ever-growing sea of YouTube videos. Whether you’re trying to avoid clickbait, or looking to save time while still gaining valuable information from a lengthy video, AI summarization provides a streamlined solution. By cutting through the noise and distilling the key ideas into bite-sized pieces, AI summarization offers viewers a clearer understanding of what a video has to offer and allows them to make informed decisions about what they want to watch.
As we continue to rely on technology to help us navigate the vast landscape of online content, AI summarization offers a powerful tool to help us cut through the noise and focus our valuable and ever-decreasing attention spans.
References
Cover image by @SopmacArt.
