GoKawiilEdgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR Amazon Prime Video is testing an AI-focused overhaul, internally referred to as Lighthouse.
The initiative entails AI-derived content recommendations and an app UI refresh.
Jeff Bezos is reportedly personally involved with Lighthouse.
After raising the price of its ad-free offering (and newly gating 4K playback) earlier this year, Amazon Prime Video is now looking to incorporate more AI. According to a new report, Jeff Bezos himself is pushing for a Prime Video redesign that more prominently features AI-driven content recommendations.
According to Reuters, Bezos wants to use Prime Video to highlight Amazon’s AI prowess. An initiative called Lighthouse is meant to provide more personalized TV and movie recommendations by using AI to analyze subscribers’ preferences and theoretically serve them content they’ll be more likely to watch.
This could lead to changes not only behind the scenes, but also in the user-facing Amazon Prime Video app interface. The report says that while a final direction for a UI redesign hasn’t been been decided, the company has internally discussed a user experience that includes an emphasis on “AI-driven tiles.” Alexa may also be integrated into Prime Video’s search functionality.
Amazon is reportedly already testing versions of an app redesign with a select group of users.
Bezos apparently became personally involved in Prime Video’s AI overhaul following an internal presentation outlining planned updates to the streaming service last fall. In Bezos’s view, the plans “failed to sufficiently highlight the service’s capabilities in AI and personalization,” the report says.
For an overhaul of a popular service that’s apparently meant to show how Amazon’s investment in AI is paying off, the Lighthouse initiative sounds fairly tame. Like every streaming platform, Prime Video already recommends content based on users’ perceived preferences; labeling those recommendations as being AI-derived doesn’t sound like it’d change much from a user perspective. Higher-quality recommendations would lead users to spend more time on Prime Video, however, which would be a win for Amazon. Whether Lighthouse can accomplish that remains to be seen.
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