Navigating the sheer quantity of streaming content material accessible in the present day is usually a full-time job. Alternative from mates, weblog posts, and people TikToks of films I haven’t thought of in years all assist. However 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 process.
So, when Amazon introduced its new AI-powered voice search perform for Fireplace TVs at its fall occasion final 12 months, I used to be intrigued. With its promise to make looking for content material simpler and smarter, I hoped it will be the answer to my issues. I’ve now had some hands-on time with the brand new characteristic, and whereas it exhibits promise, like numerous AI-powered search proper now, it’s simply not dependable sufficient to be all that helpful.
The essential thought is that you should utilize extra pure language to ask Alexa to seek out you one thing to observe. Whether or not you’ve got a present in thoughts however can’t keep in mind the title otherwise you’re unsure what you’re within the temper for, faucet the Alexa button on the Fireplace TV distant and ask questions like, “What’s that present about cash laundering set within the mountains?” or “Present me British crime dramas with feminine leads,” and the voice assistant ought to allow you to determine it out. It’s the AI equal of flipping by the channels, solely Alexa is doing the flipping for you.
That is all being powered by a brand new Amazon-built massive language mannequin (LLM) designed to floor film and TV present content material utilizing pure language inputs. It’s beginning to roll out to eligible Fireplace TV units operating Fireplace OS 6 or greater in the present day. 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 product supervisor of Fireplace 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: “Present me the film the place Tom Hanks is a pilot and has to land on the Hudson” (Sully); “What’s the TV present that mentions Szechuan sauce from McDonald’s?” (Rick and Morty); and “Present me the character documentary that was narrated by Obama” (Our Nice Nationwide Parks). Alexa did job with all these — 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 exhibiting you which ones apps you’ve got that may stream the present and whether or not it’s free to you. However what I need from a extra clever search service is just not one thing to jog my reminiscence however one thing good sufficient to seek out me one thing good to observe. I need it to make use of its huge dataset to sift by the cruft and discover me the standard. I need it to be that old-school video retailer clerk from my youth.
When Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Fireplace TV, demoed the search perform onstage at Amazon’s fall occasion final 12 months, that’s actually what he promised, saying utilizing the characteristic is “like chatting with an ideal pal who’s additionally the world’s finest video retailer clerk.”
His demo concerned a much more succesful Alexa than the one I noticed in Seattle. He requested Alexa to “discover some motion films for me,” then 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 Fireplace TV watch historical past), ones that had been good for his youngsters, after which lastly ask it a context cue: “We like video video games, which one ought to we go for?” It urged Scott Pilgrim. Now that could be very helpful.
I may chat conversationally with Alexa, together with pauses and ums and ers, and it (principally) understood what I requested
Park tells me that form of in-depth, conversational backwards and forwards 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 disintegrate. It additionally struggled to supply up greater than a pair right solutions for broader queries like “Present me Oscar-winning films from the Nineteen Seventies.”
“It’s definitely day one for us,” defined Park once I requested about these limits. “We undoubtedly have a view of what we have to do to enhance it, in order that it doesn’t matter what the shopper asks, we’re capable of finding the correct content material for them.”
What it does do properly is enhance on the present state of Alexa voice search, which — like most voice instructions — requires particular nomenclature to floor the correct outcomes. With the brand new Fireplace TV search, I may chat conversationally with Alexa, together with pauses and ums and ers, and it (principally) understood what I requested.
However I used to be largely upset within the outcomes. To see if it may assist with my household’s viewing scenario, I urged the immediate “Present me some darkish comedies with violence.” (I like romantic comedies, and my husband loves horror films.) It supplied up Heathers, American Psycho, Pulp Fiction, and Barbie. Moreover Barbie being completely out of left area, the others had been throughout 20 years previous. Not useful.
Subsequent, I attempted one thing far more particular. We like to seek out sequence we are able to binge-watch collectively, so I requested, “Present me TV sequence with greater than six episodes which might be extremely rated.” It urged 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 ideal outcome.
At this level, I made a decision to go from what I assumed can be a softball query. The form of factor I might need requested that video retailer clerk: “Present me one thing good to observe.” The outcomes had been… weird. Its first suggestion was Miss Marple (a traditional British detective present that I do truly love, however could be very previous), however its second and third choices had been The Curious Feminine and Tremendous Vixens, which not solely seem like ’70s soft-core porn however have very poor rankings on IMDB.
Sure, it’s nonetheless early days certainly.
Amazon says the search perform is designed to be personalised to you, and the Fireplace Stick I used to be utilizing at Amazon’s HQ clearly wasn’t. I simply bought the brand new replace on my Fireplace Stick this morning, so was capable of repeat the “one thing good to observe” question and am completely happy to say there was no signal of curious females. As an alternative, Alexa urged Dune: Half Two, Shōgun and Sugar. So, it seems like I could be set for my weekend viewing.
