Amazon Launches AI-Powered Video Recaps on Prime Video
Amazon has unveiled its new Video Recaps feature on Prime Video, leveraging generative AI to produce high-quality recap clips that combine storytelling, narration, dialogue snippets, and music. The feature helps viewers review key events before diving into a new season. Currently in beta testing in the United States on connected TV devices, the first series available include Fallout, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Upload, Bosch, and The Rig. Users can access the recaps via a Recap button on the series information page, with options for both video and text summaries.
Video Recaps mark a significant upgrade from X-Ray Recaps, launched in 2024, which offered text-based summaries without spoilers. AI analyzes main plots and character arcs to select standout scenes and create mini-trailer-style clips. Amazon says each clip undergoes a multi-step production process to ensure content resonates with viewers. Initially available on living room devices, the feature will expand to other platforms in the coming months. It addresses the needs of viewers who may forget plot details after a long break, offering recaps without risking spoilers from the internet.
While moving from text to video summaries adds convenience, some critics see the innovation as encroaching on the viewing experience, especially since AI generates new clips from deep content analysis. Consumers are accustomed to AI summaries via mobile or search results, but Video Recaps could become essential for long-running series like Bosch, where viewers often forget plot connections. Amazon emphasizes personalization, tailoring recaps to where viewers last paused.
Competitors such as YouTube TV also use AI with their Key Plays feature, summarizing major sports events in real-time. The feature won a Technical Emmy in AI-ML Curation of Sports Highlights in 2023 and was used over 10 million times that year, covering NFL, Premier League, and World Cup events. Despite limitations, such as less accurate baseball highlights, it demonstrates AI’s potential to enhance live viewing and expand to news and fantasy sports.
Netflix is also exploring AI in production, using generative AI to create collapsing building scenes in The Eternaut, reducing production time tenfold and cutting costs. AI is also applied to de-age characters in Happy Gilmore 2 and plan wardrobe and set design in Billionaires’ Bunker. Netflix sees AI as a tool to enhance creativity under human control, not a replacement.
The AI push in streaming remains controversial. Artists worry their work may train models without consent, affecting long-term revenue and careers. Spotify faced boycotts from bands like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Deerhoof due to AI investments impacting royalties. While AI can reduce routine tasks and free artists to focus on creativity, calls for regulation continue, prompting Spotify to implement AI content labeling and fraud detection.
Source: Techcrunch
