Restaurant rating hub Yelp is now using AI videos to sum up restaurant reviews, but you may want to be careful what you post.
Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security
For more than 10 years Tyler has used his experience in smart home tech to craft how-to guides, explainers, and recommendations for technology of all kinds. From using his home in beautiful Bend, OR as a testing zone for the latest security products to digging into the nuts and bolts of the best data privacy guidelines, Tyler has experience in all aspects of protecting your home and belongings. With a BA in Writing from George Fox and certification in Technical Writing from Oregon State University, he’s ready to get you the details you need to make the best decisions for your home. On off hours, you can find Tyler exploring the Cascade trails, finding the latest brew in town with some friends, or trying a new recipe in the kitchen!
Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V
The next time you visit Yelp on your phone to check out reviews on the newest eatery, you may be greeted by an AI-generated video. Yelp is rolling out artificial intelligence videos to Yelp’s home page feed on its iOS app.
The AI videos use large language models to grab text from reviews on an establishment and turn it into an AI-voiced narration (courtesy of ElevenLabs) and captions (courtesy of Amazon Transcribe). Then Yelp uses uploaded photos from user reviews to create a slideshow-like display of what you can eat, drink or dance to.
As far as oversight of these AI videos goes, neither reviewers nor businesses appear to have any say. Companies can’t see the AI videos before they are generated or offer input, and users can’t decline to have their reviews or photos used, which raises a number of privacy questions.
Viewers of the AI videos will have the choice to report a video as inaccurate or containing offensive content. Yelp has said that it will conduct broad audits of the videos, which will be periodically updated for establishments as more reviews and photos come in.
Speaking to The Verge, Yelp CPO Craig Saldanha said that the company wants to create as many videos as possible, although your own activity on Yelp will dictate whether you see the videos and which ones are shown. If we find any way for you to opt out of having your review content — possibly from years past — used in these videos, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Yelp didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.