Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Netflix wants to know what you’re thinking.
The streamer is set to launch an new AI interface that will attempt to get subscribers to engage with the platform in a more detailed and nuanced way.
The feature is called AI Discover and the hope is to serve up more targeted content suggestions.
“AI Discover is powered by a new intelligence layer we’ve been building that responds to what members tell us in real time and keeps learning,” said a Netflix spokesperson in a statement. “We can understand what [subscribers] are in the mood for right now, respond to what they ask, and open up new paths to discover beyond the ones that we present are predefined … What we’re most excited about is how it feels to use. Tell us what you’re after, and the experience adjusts.”
The spokesperson noted that figuring out the best way to suggest content to subscribers is a problem the company has been trying to solve for 20 years amid the streamer’s catalog rapidly expanding.
AI Discover will show up as tab on the Netflix homepage that opens an experimental environment. The feature is being gradually rolled out in the U.S. starting today and expanding over the coming weeks. The first version of the feature is built around the user picking from a carousel of themes (such as “Scare Me” accompanied by a clip from a show). Each title will have an option to “tune your recommendation” to give feedback on how you feel about it. The environment will be represented by a red pulsing jewel icon and initially will only include TV shows (not movies).
“Our goal is to reimagine Discover so that over time every member’s experience feels more personal, effortless and in tune with what they want,” said Etay Teller, engineering director at Netflix.
As time passes, Netflix will be testing various ways of implementing the feature, so exactly how this is going to work is still a bit fuzzy as AI Discover will be an evolving process (in a way, the name AI Discover refers both to subscribers using AI to discover content and Netflix using AI to discover how best to utilize AI within its platform).
That said, user feedback from the feature will not be used to help executives make programming decisions, a representative said.
One version of Netflix’s new AI Discover feature
This isn’t the first time Netflix has used AI in its search functionality. The company previously announced a partnership with OpenAI for its basic search field. AI Discover, however, was developed in-house and is said to be a “completely different,” more expansive use of the technology.
Netflix already uses algorithms to suggest content based on things that are rather unique — such as pitching different types of programming based on which types of programming tend to perform best at different times of day.
“Think of it kind of like our test kitchen,” a Netflix spokesperson added, saying the new tab is a place to “try new discovery experiences.”
