Amazon has introduced video summaries created by artificial intelligence for certain series it broadcasts on its Prime Video platform. This innovation aims to quickly remember the story, especially for users who want to reconnect after taking a break from watching a series. Amazon, which previously offered text-based summaries with the X-Ray feature, has now started to offer a more interactive experience by moving this feature to video format.
The new “Video Recap” feature summarizes the development of the characters and the general flow of the story through short videos lasting a few minutes. These summaries are created by combining stage images, simultaneous narration, selected dialogues, background music and sound effects. Viewers can access this content by clicking the “Recaps” button on the home pages of the series. Amazon determines in which format (text or video) the system will present a summary based on the current status of the content.
The new Amazon Prime Video feature is currently available in a limited number of series
Artificial intelligence-supported video summaries are currently being tested only on certain TV series. Productions that can access this feature during the beta period include Fallout, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Upload, Bosch and The Rig. Video Recaps saves time for the viewers of these series and allows them to adapt to the story faster. Amazon had previously introduced a similar system for book summaries on the Kindle platform. With this new step, it seems that the same technology is also integrated into video content.
Such artificial intelligence-based summary systems are being considered as part of companies’ automation efforts in content summarization. While Spotify is similarly working on content summarization with artificial intelligence, it is not surprising that Amazon is investing in this area. When it comes to video content, the potential of such summaries to increase user interaction is noteworthy. Especially when there is a lot of content on the platform, such tools can be useful for users to refresh information before returning to the content.
Although technically beneficial, this practice also faces some criticism. Indie authors in particular have opposed the Kindle Recaps feature; He drew attention to the possibility of artificial intelligence misinterpreting the content and reflecting the stories or characters incorrectly. The same risk may apply to video content. The scenes chosen by artificial intelligence or the narrative language it uses may present an incomplete or misleading summary to the audience.