With shows taking more time to come out between seasons, it’s sometimes hard to remember what happened in the last one. Some shows include recaps ahead of the new season to get you up to speed, but other times, you’re left going back on your own to see if you can piece together the things you missed or may have just forgotten.
It looks like Amazon understands this kind of frustration, and is now introducing Video Recaps for its own shows (via TechCrunch). Now, what makes this a bit more unique from your standard recap is that these will be produced using AI, which may or may not work depending on how well these recaps are received.
A good idea that will need excellent execution
Amazon shares that the technology will “identify a show’s most important plot points, combining them with synchronized voice narration, dialogue snippets, and music to create a visual summary that prepares viewers for the new season.” This isn’t Amazon’s first time dabbling with this kind of tech either, with the brand’s X-Ray Recaps delivering the same kind of information, although just in text format.
For Prime Video users, this feature will be easy to spot, with a new recap button being on the home page of supported shows and movies. For now, it will only be available when viewing supported shows and movies on home streaming devices. So, if you have a Fire Stick or similar device, we recommend looking out for this feature.
As far as how Amazon makes it happen, well, it “analyzes a season’s key plot points and character arcs to deeply understand the most pivotal moments” first, then it utilizes AI in order to create a recap that includes video clips that are paired with “audio effects, dialogue snippets, and music.”
Apparently, there’s also going to be voiceover that will be AI generated as well. The feature will be available to Prime Video members in the US first. And since this will be a beta rollout, there’s always the chance that it might not get a full launch depending on how things go. However, we suspect that once it gets things tweaked, Amazon will release this feature in full, and it will eventually roll it out to other countries as well.
It’s unclear how something like this will be received, but it’s good that Amazon is at least being transparent about what it’s doing. AI has become a hot topic over the past few years, and whether use of it is disclosed or not, there’s still a stigma attached to using it as a creative tool. With the way things are going, we may even see AI-generated ads on Prime Video in the near future.
