LONDON: YouTube announced on Thursday that it will begin rolling out Veo 3, Google’s most advanced AI video generation model, on YouTube Shorts — free of charge to selected countries in the MENA region — over the coming weeks.
The announcement came during YouTube’s flagship advertiser event, Brandcast, marking the platform’s renewed push into AI as it seeks to solidify its regional presence against competitors TikTok and Meta’s Instagram.
“YouTube has been the launchpad for the creator economy across MENA for over a decade,” said Tarek Amin, YouTube’s regional director for the Middle East, Turkiye & Africa.
“By combining the authentic trust of our creators with powerful AI models like Veo 3, we are offering brands in the region an unmatched ability to drive culture and commerce with audiences they can’t find anywhere else,” he said.
YouTube marked its 20th anniversary since the upload of the historic video, “Me at the zoo,” on April 23, 2005, and has been operating in MENA for more than a decade.
