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News of the day
1. YouTube introduces custom feeds, letting users describe desired video content for AI-powered recommendations using Gemini. → Read more
2. Amazon blocked Meta's Muse AI agent for browsing and buying, citing unauthorized access and credential concerns. Shopify, however, partnered with Meta, integrating Muse for agentic checkout. → Read more
3. Google introduces Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Lite TTS, offering advanced voice customization, character creation, and high-volume audio generation for creators and developers. → Read more
4. OpenAI establishes an independent math advisory group at the Institute for Advanced Study to address community concerns about AI's role in mathematical breakthroughs. → Read more
Our take
Hi Dotikers!
For years, YouTube's algorithm has been that mysterious roommate who knows everything about you but never asks what you actually want. That changes now. At its Made on YouTube event, the platform announced Custom Feeds, a feature that lets you describe in plain language the kind of feed you want, and Gemini builds it for you. Want a tab full of long documentaries for your evening wind down, or relaxing commentary videos for your commute? Just type it in, and it gets pinned to the top of your homepage. Multiple feeds are rolling out in the US on web, mobile and TVs in the coming weeks.
Let's be honest, this is one of the smartest moves YouTube has made in years. With over 20 billion videos in its library, the classic recommendation engine was becoming a slot machine: sometimes brilliant, often baffling. Giving users a prompt box instead of an endless settings menu is exactly the right interface for the AI era. It also quietly acknowledges something platforms have resisted admitting for a decade: people want agency over their feeds, not just better guesses about their weaknesses.
YouTube did not invent this idea, though. Bluesky popularized custom feeds years ago, and Threads, Instagram, X and Spotify have all followed with their own versions. The difference is scale. When the biggest video platform on Earth hands you the keys to your own algorithm, it stops being a niche experiment and becomes the new standard.
One caveat worth keeping in mind: your carefully crafted "productive morning routine" feed is only ever one click away from the main feed, where the algorithm still knows you secretly watch fail compilations at 1 a.m.
The prompt is becoming the new remote control. Time to learn how to use it.
Alex.
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