- Prime Video and Netflix are planning new AI-generated websites
- Netflix revealed its ‘GenPage’ tests ahead of a new Prime Video report
- Viewers are not convinced that websites are moving in the right direction
You’re about to see a lot more generative AI in your streaming apps: Netflix has published details of tests it’s doing with generative AI on its website, while Pakinomist reports that Amazon Prime Video is also set for an AI-powered overhaul.
Starting with Netflix, the company has revealed that it’s working on a way to use generative AI to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the app website. That includes figuring out which recommendations each user should see, adapting to feedback and user behavior over time, and combining movies, shows, games, podcasts and live events in the best way.
It starts with a prompt – “Given everything we know about this user and this request, what website should we generate to maximize user satisfaction?” – and Netflix seems pleased with the results. However, there are still some issues to work on, such as the AI model not knowing much about a movie or show that has only just launched.
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User engagement increased in Netflix’s internal testing, with the new ‘GenPage’ AI model applied, and recommendations became more relevant faster. What’s more, the time needed to render the website went down. This is still in its early stages and Netflix hasn’t said when this will be coming to users or in what form, but it’s now in the pipeline.
AI ‘front and centre’ on Prime Video
On to Amazon, a new Pakinomist report says that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has personally decided that Prime Video will serve as a showcase for AI in the near future, and that an upcoming website redesign will put AI “front and center.”
That’s according to people “with direct knowledge of the matter,” so don’t take it as confirmed just yet. The website overhaul project is apparently known as ‘Lighthouse’, and is said to be intended as a way to claim some of the AI limelight from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
We’re not getting too many details on what this will look like, but movie and TV recommendations will have more AI injected into them, Pakinomist says. AI will also get better at learning viewers’ personal preferences over time and responding to voice commands.
You might see tiles on the website, such as ‘1980s action movies’, for example. The report doesn’t give any indication of when this overhaul might start rolling out, but it’s apparently already being tested with a select number of users in a variety of forms.
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With two of the major streaming giants apparently now committed to websites controlled by AI, the next question is what users might make of it. There is so much to see on each platform that some sort of filter or algorithm is needed, but is this AI-focused approach the right way to do it?
Earlier inspections of the website might give us some clues: A major Netflix redesign rolled out last year was met with a lot of online complaints, but the company’s internal data showed it worked, so it stayed put. At the time, there was speculation that more AI was on the way, and it appears that is now the case.
“I don’t know if I’m alone,” writes one Redditor, “but I hate the concept of ‘personalizing’ my content. No offense to anyone but AI so far hasn’t been good at predicting anything about me… I personally don’t want software to think for me.”
Reactions to Prime Video’s upcoming AI overhaul also seem downbeat. “This seems completely unnecessary,” commented one user, while several suggested the move might even be enough to tip them to cancel their Prime Video subscription.
