New Google AI helper to assist with hacked YouTube account recovery
Google has confirmed that YouTube users who find themselves locked out of their accounts after hackers strike will soon have a brand new AI-powered assistant to help them get quickly regain access. In fact, for some users, the all-new account recovery tool is already here.
To sign into YouTube, you must first enter your Google account email and password. Doing so provides you with access to liking videos, saving favorites, subscribing to channels and so on. Your Google account, however, also unlocks the door to your online life by way of granting access to your Gmail inbox, a prime target for those looking to compromise login credentials and gain access to confidential information. Unfortunately, there are many ways by which someone can gain access to your Google account, the power behind services such as Gmail, Google Photos, Google Maps. An attacker can be a cybercriminal or hacker, a friend or even family member, but when it comes to YouTube they are most likely to be the former. The reason being that an account with any kind of following and is respected in providing information on whatever subject it might be to that audience, is a valuable conduit for the distribution of malware, phishing attacks and cryptocurrency scams. All of which goes to explain why it’s important to regain access to your hacked Google account as soon as possible. Something that some users have long complained isn’t as easy it should be. That is about to change, at least as far as YouTube channel reclamation is concerned.
Introducing YouTube’s New AI-Powered Hacked Channel Assistant
In an August 21 YouTube support posting, TeamYouTube confirmed that it is launching a new troubleshooting tool to help those users who find themselves locked out of an account they believe might have been hacked. The AI-powered hacked channel assistant is currently only available to English-speaking users, or rather those who access the YouTube Help Center in English, and even then some of the troubleshooting features will only be available to certain creators at this point in time. Eligible users will see the “Chat with our hacked channel assistant” option towards the top of the YouTube account help page. “We are working to make this available to all users in the future,” Google said.
Eligible account holders will see this new hacked YouTube channel assistant option.
“This tool will guide you through a series of questions about you and your channel to first secure your Google login,” Google said, “and to undo any changes the hacker has made to your channel.”
The Ai-powered chat bot will guide users through the YouTube channel account reclamation process
Before using the new channel-hacking helper, Google pushes a dialog warning that the AI is still in the learning stage and so may “show inaccurate or offensive results.” Users are also asked to agree to Google’s Terms of Service and Generative Al Prohibited Use Policy, and states that human reviewers may “read, annotate, and process your conversations.” It’s important to understand, therefore, that nothing you would want to hide from such reviewers is entered during the help assistant chat.
Google AI helper use policy
Google advises users to double check for signs that the YouTube channel has been hacked before using the new helper bot. These include:
- Changes you didn’t make: Your profile picture, descriptions, email settings, AdSense for YouTube association, or sent messages are different.
- Uploaded videos that aren’t yours: Someone has posted videos as your Google Account. You may get email notifications about these videos for penalties or strikes against bad content.
The hacked channel assistant will then help you to recover and secure your Google account, revert any changes made to your YouTube channel and reduce the risk of further account compromise moving forward.