After hinting at a new AI-powered search experience during its recent earnings call, Netflix officially unveiled the feature at its tech and product event on Wednesday.
This new search experience will utilize OpenAI’s ChatGPT to provide users with a conversational discovery experience. Users can enter their preferences using natural phrases like “I want something funny and upbeat” or even more detailed requests, such as “I want something scary, but not too scary, and maybe a little bit funny, but not haha funny.”
The feature is set to roll out this week to iOS users as an opt-in beta. Some subscribers in Australia and New Zealand have already had access to it, as reported by Bloomberg last month.
Other streaming competitors are also leveraging generative AI for search. For instance, Amazon has an AI voice search experience on Fire TVs that responds to open-ended inquiries about TV shows and movies.
A closer comparison is Tubi’s ChatGPT-powered search tool, which answered content-related questions and suggested movies based on a user’s specific request. However, Tubi later discontinued the feature, probably because of low adoption. It remains to be seen whether Netflix’s new feature will face similar challenges.
Additionally, at the tech and product event, the company mentioned plans to use generative AI to update title cards in subscribers’ preferred languages.
Other features revealed on Wednesday include a short-form video feed for mobile users and a redesign of its TV homepage.
