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Amazon has just made it impossible to forget what happened in the last episode.
The Netflix rival has introduced a new feature called Video Recaps, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create film-quality video summaries of an earlier season. If it's been a few years since your favourite show was last on screens, it can be difficult to remember what happened.
Currently in testing for a handful of Amazon Prime Original shows in the United States, the technology analyses crucial storylines and character developments to produce comprehensive visual recaps. These summaries combine carefully curated scenes from earlier seasons with an AI-generated narration, dialogue excerpts, and musical accompaniment. Amazon says the feature is designed to help you reconnect with beloved characters and storylines — so you'll be clued up on every cliffhanger when you start the next season.
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To achieve this, generative AI is used to first examine a season's narrative structure, pinpointing essential story developments and character progressions that will matter most to you while preparing for upcoming episodes.
The system then selects the most impactful video segments and synchronises them with audio components, dialogue extracts and musical elements. An AI-produced voiceover ties these elements together, creating what the company describes as a cinematic viewing experience.
The beta version of Video Recaps currently supports popular Amazon original programmes such as Fallout, Upload, Bosch, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and The Rig.
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The beta version currently supports popular Amazon original programmes such as Fallout, Upload, Bosch, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and The Rig. You'll be able to access the feature through living room devices, with compatibility for additional platforms planned in the coming months.
This new offering expands upon Prime Video's 2024 introduction of X-Ray Recaps, which generates spoiler-free written summaries of significant plot developments, character-driven moments and crucial details.
As well as a rotating selection of licensed films, television series, and documentaries, Prime Video includes a slew of original productions that it has financed that will always be exclusive to its streaming service | AMAZON PRESS OFFICE Gérard Medioni, Prime Video's vice president of technology, said, “Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming. This first-of-its-kind feature demonstrates Prime Video’s ongoing commitment to innovation and making the viewing experience more accessible and enjoyable for customers.”
When you browse to a programme's next season, a recap button appears on the detail page. Selecting this reveals all available recap options for that series, whether video-based or text-based, like X-Ray Recaps, allowing you to choose your preferred format.
Once Amazon finishes its testing of this new feature, it will only be launched in the US for now. However, you could see it expanded to the UK and other parts of the world at a later date.