Cineverse said it plans to launch cineSearch, a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to help viewers answer the question “What do you want to watch?”
The new tool–which comes with an artificial intelligence-based video advisor known as Ava, will find programming across all streaming platforms, not just the Cineverse.
A public beta version of cineSearch will be available on the Cineverse platform in the spring. Viewers can sign up to be on a wait list at cinesearch.com.
Cineverse said it expects to form partnerships that will put cineSearch on smart TV sets and other streaming platforms.
“Effective search and discovery is currently the most pressing problem for users of streaming services today,” said Tony Huidor, Chief Technology Officer & Chief Operating Officer of Cineverse.
“We first developed cineSearch as an answer to our own problem,” Huidor said. “Using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, we now have the ability to expand this feature well beyond our initial expectations. We feel this is a great example of leveraging the power of AI to not only create better user experiences, but to also help aid in the discovery of great films that fans may not have otherwise found.”
cineSearch was developed by Cineverse using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI search. The idea was to create a chatbot focused on TV and film. The interface aims to be conversational, based on the use of the PaLM2 large language model,
Built into the system is an extensive set of metadata – both standard metadata as well as computer vision-based enriched, contextual metadata – across more than 100,000 movies and television shows, Cineverse said.
Viewers can search based on theme, tone, mood, setting, music, plot or micro genre. The system will also take into account the users viewing history, their location, the date, weather and other factors.
If a particular program is not available within Cineverse, Ava will recommend shows available elsewhere and provide links to access films and shows available on other streaming services.
“Generative AI has the potential to fundamentally transform the media industry, fueling a new era of cloud-enabled capabilities that can significantly improve the consumer experience,” said Anil Jain, global managing director of strategic consumer industries at Google Cloud. “By leveraging Google Cloud’s leading gen AI capabilities, cineSearch can further personalize and streamline the user experience, providing viewers a vastly improved way to discover new content, with relevant recommendations for movies and television shows at their fingertips.”
