Prime Video users are beginning to have more run-ins with artificial intelligence across the platform, whether they know it or not.
At a conference at its Culver City studio headquarters, Amazon pulled back the curtain Wednesday on many of the ways that the company is using AI to power its subscription streaming service and help tailor the interface to its more than 200M monthly active users.
From AI-powered broadcast enhancements and recaps of live events to AI-suggested search topics and language dubbing, Amazon seems to be leveraging the technology to enhance the quality and specificity of the Prime Video experience, even as uses of AI, especially in film and television, are under intense scrutiny.
“Gen AI tech capabilities are evolving faster than ever, so we’re leaning heavily into invention on every dimension, bringing features to life quickly and at scale to help improve customers’ overall experience,” Tricia Lee, director of product and data at Prime Video, told the audience at Wednesday’s Prime Engage event, which was held primarily for advertisers.
Among the areas that Amazon is leveraging AI include customization tools, operational capabilities and data insights, Lee explained.
One of the more apparent ways that users will interact with the technology on the platform is the use of suggested topics via a generative AI tool to help a user narrow down their search for new content to watch. Based on watch history, the tool may suggest “fantasy quest” titles or “mind-bending sci fi” films. This use case will likely seem familiar to users, given the AI tools popping up on social media sites, search engines and more to help customers curate their experience.
Amazon also revealed its use of AI to provide recaps of live events, particularly sports, for viewers who might be tuning in mid-telecast. Again, not entirely new given the increasing usage of tools like ChatGPT to provide summaries and recaps of material.
Speaking of sports, Prime Video is rolling out AI-powered overlays for particular sporting events that can predict what might happen next, including which receivers might be open as the offensive line takes positions on the field ahead of a drive or which drivers might have enough fuel to make it to the finish line of a race.
However, there are also ways that subscribers might benefit from AI on Prime Video without ever knowing. Amazon is using AI to help improve content resolution and picture quality as well, particularly for live events with spotty bandwidth and older, standard definition material.
“We’re investing in AI to protect picture quality, even if details are lost at low bit rates, say, for example, over mobile networks,” Lee said. “We also see opportunity in AI-based remastering to convert standard definition content into high definition, which we think not only creates a higher quality viewing experience, but preserves creative intent and enhances the value of [an] SD catalog.”
That could mean AI is being used to ensure a smooth broadcast for an NFL game or to improve the viewing experience on an old episode of Bewitched. AI is also being used to detect and address subtitle and frame-rate discrepancies on the backend, illustrating yet another way that AI is working behind-the-scenes to optimize the platform.
As AI advertising becomes increasingly common, Amazon is leaning in there as well. The streamer plans to offer an AI tool to advertisers that will create and curate ads based on the title a viewer is currently watching. For example, a user watching new episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty might be fed an AI ad for a travel agency promoting some lavish beach getaways.
The legal framework for AI’s convergence with media is still mostly nonexistent. So far, many of the current AI-related lawsuits in the entertainment world seek clarity on the use of film, television, books and other copyrighted source material to create new content. Most of these tools rolled out by Amazon are more intent on improving existing content, which doesn’t appear to be as contentious a use case and is becoming increasingly more common.
It’s not very surprising that a tech company like Amazon would be going all in on AI, but this is still a relatively new territory for the entertainment industry and the reception, especially among creatives, will be interesting to watch. In particular, using AI as a way to enhance the creative/production pipeline has often been met with intense backlash. Earlier this year, the filmmaking team behind The Brutalist nearly saw their Oscar campaign derailed by the controversy over the use of AI to smooth some actors’ Hungarian dialogue.
But, this is where viewers and creatives tend to differ on AI. Among individual consumers, AI has been much more well received, especially as a way of discovering new programming or easing the user experience of a platform.
