Netflix is testing a new way to let you waste a whole load of time searching for a Netflix show or movie to watch, one powered by AI.
Some users in Australia and New Zealand who watch Netflix on an iPhone already have access to a new AI search feature, according to Bloomberg.
The idea is you’ll be able to treat the Netflix search bar more like you would a chatbot, asking for suggestions based on all sorts of things, not just elements like the title, the actors, the genre or director.
One suggestion is you could ask for content based on how you’re feeling at the time, which the current search tech likely wouldn’t know what to do with unless Netflix had a category of films for when you feel sad — or similar.
As far as we understand it, Netfix’s current search tech relies on meta tags, which are identifiers linked to every single piece of content in the streamer’s library. That includes things like actors, genre information and themes.
This new system will insert what’s known as LLM tech — which stands for large language model — as seen in chatbots. It’s designed to deal with more naturalistic-feeling input and output, letting you be much looser about how you treat a search request.
Netflix is reportedly using OpenAI for this project, the company behind ChatGPT.
According to The Verge, this feature is going to spread out to other countries “in the coming weeks and months.”
However, in an unusual move for Netflix, it’s apparently going to be an optional feature you’ll to agree to activate, rather than having it dropped on you as a mandatory upgrade. That’s likely sensible when it can feel like just about everything is having AI jammed into it these days — and AI is infamous for its very high energy consumption.
One potential route for this feature, if it proves popular, is it could be limited to certain tiers of Netflix subscription only.