YouTube's New AI-Driven Ads, Twitch Drops TikTok Clone & QR Codes in Shorts Feed

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YouTube buries Brand Connect for an AI-driven ad machine, Twitch deletes its TikTok clone, Adobe wants to replace your editor with an AI co-worker, and why is YouTube showing you QR codes in your desktop Shorts feed right now? These are the creator news of the week. Let’s dive in.

We start with a major B2B update for those doing brand deals on YouTube as YouTube restructures Brand Connect. It’s now called YouTube Creator Partnership and is integrated directly into Google Ads and YouTube Studio.

As expected, brands won’t be manually searching for creators anymore. Google is leveraging Gemini AI to analyze data from over 3 million creators. If a brand requests specific criteria like “tech creators with high Gen Z retention,” the AI will generate matching channels. Remember my previous advice about not sharing detailed channel insights with advertisers via your Studio tab? YouTube is now making that more challenging. They’re attracting brands with promises of 30% higher conversion rates and 86% better return on ad spend.

If you keep your data private, you’ll be largely invisible to these advertisers. Whether you choose to rely on creator partnerships to connect with sponsors is up to you. Personally, I wouldn’t trust an AI to match me with brands. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

While YouTube and TikTok are trying to monetize live viewers with interactive elements, Twitch is taking a different approach. On March 31st, Twitch is removing the Combos feature entirely. The desktop gaming community heavily criticized this feature, as the vertical stream animations that work on smartphones are considered annoying spam on 16:9 desktop streams. Twitch realized that blindly copying TikTok’s features doesn’t align with their core audience.

Shifting gears to the desktop vs. mobile debate, why is YouTube displaying giant QR codes next to Shorts in the desktop browser? Credit to Babel from our community for spotting this and sharing a screenshot. Scanning these codes opens your YouTube app on your smartphone, launches the Shorts camera, and loads the video track into remix mode.

The goal seems to be converting passive desktop traffic into active mobile user-generated content. Our data across the KW Media portfolio shows that approximately 20% of short views are now happening on connected TVs and desktop browsers. However, all creation tools like remix, collab, or green screen remain exclusive to the mobile app. Share in the comments if you see value in this feature as a creator or expect your viewers to engage with it.

Now, let’s discuss an update for producers and editors. Adobe introduced Project Moonlight this week, an AI co-worker integrated into Premiere Pro and Photoshop. Firefly AI learns your editing style, allowing you to use text commands instead of navigating menus for tasks like rough cuts or color grading. While the technology is intriguing, I caution against subscribing to Adobe’s ecosystem solely for AI features.

For image editing, excellent open-source alternatives like Photopea exist. And for video editing, DaVinci Resolve is our top recommendation at KW Media. Resolve provides powerful tools without requiring an AI assistant or a monthly subscription fee.

That wraps up this week’s news. I want to hear your thoughts on YouTube’s strategy of directing desktop traffic to mobile Shorts via QR codes. Smart move or annoying? Share your opinions in the comments below. I’m Martin, bringing you relevant creator news, and I’ll see you next week.