I built an AI tool to summarize YouTube videos and save time

Hey HN,

I wanted to share a personal project that has significantly improved how I consume YouTube content. I used to spend a lot of time watching videos at accelerated speeds and skipping through chapters to get the main points. This was not only time-consuming but also frustrating.

So, I developed TLDW (Too Long; Didn't Watch), a Chrome extension that uses AI to summarize YouTube videos into concise bullet points. With TLDW, I can quickly grasp the essential information without watching entire videos, saving me a lot of time.

Here are some key features: - AI-powered summaries using LLAMA3. - Ability to ask the AI for detailed explanations on specific points. - Free for up to 5 videos/day, with unlimited access for €1.90/month. - No personal data collection and secure payments via Stripe.

I initially built it to address my own needs, but I realized it could be helpful for many others as well. If you find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of content on YouTube, I hope TLDW can be as useful for you as it has been for me.

I'd love to get your feedback and thoughts on how to improve it further. Thanks for checking it out!

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tldw-too-long-didnt-watch/nhkgmegpilaijabkghhjpfpmbaldpojg

Youtube overview : https://youtu.be/fPI0f2Cj1FM?si=GrTmU77kTatDrKG7

I love watching the world run around in circles :)

We started out by writing text, then went on to recording video/speech, only to realize that text was superior in the first place.

I get the value of videos for introducing new topics to beginners, but apart from the very early stages, i much prefer written information. I can search written information in a way that until very recently has not been possible with video/audio.

And also, my life is too short to view a 45 minute video on something i could probably read and understand in 10 minutes, without the obligatory introduction/self promotion/conclusion typically found in the video.

ramblerman · 2 years ago

I think it’s funny you frame this as an information density problem.

The vast majority of people consuming YouTube need moving pictures to keep their attention engaged and sadly enough a voice to offer the illusion of social contact.

nottorp · 2 years ago

If you label yourself as a 'content consumer' you have lost the battle.

pavel_lishin · 2 years ago

I think it depends on what the video is about.

Watching a 3 minute video on how to fix my sink saved me about a hundred bucks.

If it was a 45 minute video, of course that would be useless, but "45 minute video vs 10 minute read" sure feels like a false dichotomy.

kylebenzle · 2 years ago

It's not a dichotomy, just an example. Dude above is just saying, yes video is good sometimes but for a lot of stuff just skimming a written summary is faster and better.

It's not an either/or thing, just that written summaries of video summaries of written information is just kind of funny :)

Deleted Comment

ensocode · 2 years ago

Sure it depends on the content of the video. Video is great for learning how to fix your lawn mower but other that it feels more like wasting time, at least if its not for your entertainment but to learn something. Thanks for the link will try it out.

Larrikin · 2 years ago

I remember the massive annoyance of learning to tie a tie or learning a dance before YouTube. Today I feel extreme annoyance at library documentation for animations and UI components that just includes text descriptions.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF · 2 years ago

This might be optimal for off-the-cuff content, since reading is faster than listening but speaking is faster than typing

Unless stenography ever catches on

Create a summary of a YouTube video using its transcript. You will use the following template: """ ## Summary {Multiple sentences summarizing the YouTube video} ## Notes {Bullet points that summarize the key points or important moments from the video’s transcript with explanations} ## Quotes {Extract the best sentences from the transcript in a list} """ Transcript:

8fingerlouie · 2 years ago

runjake · 2 years ago

My initial thought is that there are already free extensions that do this by grabbing the YouTube transcript and feeding it to an LLM with a prompt.

I myself wrote my own unpublished browser extension to do this. Your extension name is great, however. This kind of extension has been super handy in seeing if a video is worth watching. It takes seconds to run.

Here's pretty much the prompt I use with a couple small personal things left out:

obviyus · 2 years ago

I’ve been using the free tier of Gemini for exactly this, it can read and summarise YouTube videos by reading transcripts and the auto-generated CCs. Works really well!

frankharrison · 2 years ago

Do you use anything for emails?

_heimdall · 2 years ago

Do the person you're sending the email to a favor - skip the LLM and just email the prompt you would have used. If the email was going to be worth a damn the prompt would hve included all the context and information you needed anyway.

Not yet, I think Google has a Workspace AI product that does that but we haven’t tried it

greenyies · 2 years ago

Through which interface?

sergiotapia · 2 years ago

You can just put this on gemini.google.com and it summarizes/Q&A.

"summarize this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZprmAVkzRk"

beefnugs · 2 years ago

People reinventing wheels at a pace never seen by mankind

I dont see this mentioned enough: https://github.com/danielmiessler/fabric

A location to track prompts for reuse by many people at the very least, specific tools including solving this exact same problem as well.

Even though i am very skeptical of all the ai-bull at the very least it needs some kind of global cache database where people share prompts, input and output examples, and human tagged information on how it works or doesnt work. maybe even linked to real testing on why/if putting in "take a step back and look at the results" type nonsense does anything at all

esel2k · 2 years ago

Some suggestions: I watched the movie and thought the “ask questions” part could be done better.

Going back a problem I often have: I search youtube movies for learning something and click through 4-5 movies until I find a good presenter, not just ads, well explained and good summarized. You might not be able to to a better search algorithm but you could think of on a specific topic summaries a few youtube movies and by this give a good suggestion which to look at/read the summary.

Borrible · 2 years ago

I just don't watch them. It almost always saves me time.

namaria · 2 years ago

Yeah I mean if an information source is so low signal-to-noise ratio I need to have it summarized, there are probably better sources. And if it's actually high quality, the summarization is lossy.

There's no point to doing this.

RevEng · 2 years ago

The point is figuring out if it is information dense or not. You don't know until you watch it. An LLM can process the entire transcript much faster than you can.

s0teri0s · 2 years ago

Does this work at all on those demonstration videos where the videographer is too shy to add a vocal track, and just demonstrates everything, sometimes with text?