YouTube will let you build your own algorithm with AI

Also from Made on YouTube on September 23, 2026: custom feeds. Viewers describe what they want in a prompt — commute-length podcasts, “relaxing commentary videos to unwind with,” detailed include/exclude rules — and Gemini builds a feed pinned as its own home-page tab. Multiple custom feeds arrive on web and mobile starting next month; the main recommendation feed stays.

This is the industry’s answer to “the algorithm did this to me.” Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, X, and Spotify have all shipped feed-building tools. YouTube joining with Gemini and a 20-billion-video corpus claim is the mass-market version of that idea.

We’re cautiously for this. Giving people language to steer discovery is useful AI when the default ranking feels opaque or addictive. Emily Moxley, YouTube’s VP of Product Management for Viewer AI, framed the pitch around exploration across a huge corpus. A pinned tab you asked for is a healthier mental model than an endless undirected stream — if people actually use it.

The hedge in YouTube’s own framing matters: custom feeds do not replace the main feed. That’s product honesty and a soft admission that engagement still lives in the primary recommender. Prompted feeds can be a pressure valve while the core machine keeps optimizing watch time. I’m watching whether custom feeds get comparable inventory quality or become a sandbox of leftovers.

Gemini in the loop means long, natural-language constraints — prioritize, exclude, mood, format. That’s powerful and fragile. Vague prompts will produce mush; adversarial or extremist prompts will test safety filters; “build me a rabbit hole” prompts will show whether user agency includes self-harmful curation. Platforms that hand users a steering wheel still choose the roads.

Compared with Bluesky’s chronological and community-driven feeds, YouTube’s version is AI-mediated and catalog-scale. The upside is real control for parents, students, professionals, and anyone tired of one blended identity. The downside is fragmentation: creators may chase both the main algorithm and a swarm of niche prompted feeds they can’t see.

Useful AI earns the win if custom feeds reduce doomscroll regret without becoming a second black box. Name the trajectory: every major consumer surface is racing to let users “describe an algorithm.” The winners will be the ones that keep the prompt honest about what it can’t override.

TechCrunch by Sarah Perez, 7:30 AM PDT September 23, 2026. Feature announced ahead of / at Made on YouTube; Gemini powers feed construction; multi-feed support begins rolling out the following month on web and mobile.