Navigating the sheer quantity of streaming content material accessible as we speak could be a full-time job. Recommendations from buddies, weblog posts, and TikToks of flicks I haven’t considered in years all assist. But discovering one thing myself, my husband, my 13-year-old daughter, and my 16-year-old son all wish to watch collectively continues to be a herculean activity.
So, when Amazon introduced its new AI-powered voice search function for Fire TVs at its fall occasion final 12 months, I used to be intrigued. With its promise to make trying to find content material simpler and smarter, I hoped it might be the answer to my issues. I’ve now had some hands-on time with the new characteristic, and whereas it exhibits promise, like loads of AI-powered search proper now, it’s simply not dependable sufficient to be all that helpful.
The primary thought is that you should use extra pure language to ask Alexa to search out you one thing to look at. Whether you will have a present in thoughts however can’t keep in mind the title otherwise you’re undecided what you’re within the temper for, faucet the Alexa button on the Fire TV distant and ask questions like, “What’s that show about money laundering set in the mountains?” or “Show me British crime dramas with female leads,” and the voice assistant ought to enable you determine it out. It’s the AI equal of flipping by way of the channels, solely Alexa is doing the flipping for you.
This is all being powered by a new Amazon-built giant language mannequin (LLM) designed to floor film and TV present content material utilizing pure language inputs. It’s beginning to roll out to eligible Fire TV units working Fire OS 6 or increased as we speak. At launch, it’s able to find content material primarily based on issues like matter, style, plot factors, actors, and quotes due to being educated on knowledge from providers like IMDb.
Amazon’s Joshua Park, senior supervisor of product for Fire TV, demoed AI search to me at Amazon’s Day 1 HQ in Seattle earlier this month. He confirmed me a number of queries, together with: “Show me the movie where Tom Hanks is a pilot and has to land on the Hudson” (Sully); “What is the TV show that mentions Szechuan sauce from McDonald’s?” (Rick and Morty); and “Show me the nature documentary that was narrated by Obama” (Our Great National Parks). Alexa did a great job with all of those — however whereas it’s neat, it’s all stuff I can Google on my telephone whereas sitting on the sofa.
Amazon does add useful context to the outcomes, together with displaying you which ones apps you will have that may stream the present and whether or not it’s free to you. But what I would like from a extra clever search service will not be one thing to jog my reminiscence however one thing good sufficient to search out me one thing good to look at. I would like it to make use of its huge dataset to sift by way of the cruft and discover me the standard stuff. I would like it to be that old-school video retailer clerk from my youth.
When Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Fire TV, demoed the search operate onstage at Amazon’s fall occasion final 12 months, that’s actually what he promised, saying utilizing the characteristic is “like speaking to a great friend who’s also the world’s best video store clerk.”
His demo concerned a much more succesful Alexa than the one I noticed in Seattle. He requested Alexa to “find some action movies for me” after which was capable of proceed speaking to the assistant to winnow it right down to films he wouldn’t must pay for, these he hadn’t seen but (or at the very least weren’t in his Fire TV watch historical past), ones that have been good for his youngsters, after which lastly ask it a context cue: “We like video games, which one should we go for?” It steered Scott Pilgrim. Now that could be very helpful.
I might chat conversationally with Alexa, together with pauses and ums and ers, and it (principally) understood what I requested
Park tells me that type of in-depth, conversational forwards and backwards is deliberate for future updates. In my time making an attempt out the present capabilities, I wasn’t capable of get it to transcend two queries earlier than it began to collapse. It additionally struggled to supply up greater than a pair appropriate solutions for broader queries like “Show me Oscar-winning movies from the 1970s.”
“It’s certainly day one for us,” defined Park once I requested about these limits. “We definitely have a view of what we need to do to improve it, so that no matter what the customer asks, we’re able to find the right content for them.”
What it does do effectively is enhance on the present state of Alexa voice search, which — like most voice instructions — requires particular nomenclature to floor the best outcomes. With the new Fire TV search, I might chat conversationally with Alexa, together with pauses and ums and ers, and it (principally) understood what I requested.
But I used to be largely disenchanted within the outcomes. To see if it might assist with my household’s viewing scenario, I steered the immediate “Show me some dark comedies with violence.” (I really like romantic comedies, and my husband loves horror films.) It provided up Heathers, American Psycho, Pulp Fiction, and Barbie. Besides Barbie being completely out of left subject, the others have been throughout 20 years previous. Not useful.
Next, I attempted one thing far more particular. We like to search out sequence we will binge-watch collectively, so I requested, “Show me TV series with more than six episodes that are highly rated.” It steered two exhibits, each anime. One was rated a 9 out of 10 however the different was a 5 out of 10. Even for an avid anime fan, that isn’t an important consequence.
At this level, I made a decision to go for what I believed can be a softball query. The type of factor I may need requested that video retailer clerk: “Show me something good to watch.” The outcomes have been… weird. Its first suggestion was Miss Marple (a basic British detective present that I do really love however could be very previous), however its second and third choices have been The Curious Female and Super Vixens, which not solely seem like ’70s soft-core porn however have very poor rankings on IMDB.
Yes, it’s nonetheless early days certainly. Amazon spokesperson Ashley Aruda did attain out after I revealed this to say the problems I skilled round “search result relevancy” throughout my demo have been addressed. She famous that the model I examined was not the one which shipped to clients as we speak.
I examined the AI search on May third, about three weeks in the past, on a Fire Stick at Amazon’s HQ. I did get the replace on my Fire Stick this morning, so was capable of repeat the “something good to watch” question. I’m blissful to say there was no signal of curious females. Instead, Alexa steered Dune: Part Two, Shōgun and Sugar. So, it seems like I is likely to be set for my weekend viewing.
Updated May 30th: Added that Amazon reached out after publication to notice that I examined an earlier model of the search characteristic, not the one delivery to customers as we speak, and that the corporate is optimistic the problems I skilled have been resolved.
