Home > Resources > Articles > Are You Still Watching? How Netflix Uses AI to Find Your Next Binge-Worthy Show

Are You Still Watching? How Netflix Uses AI to Find Your Next Binge-Worthy Show

Hollywood is no stranger to AI. Consider its role in movies such as Ex Machina and Blade Runner. Or in the popular HBO series Westworld.But while AI may play a leading role in the entertainment industry’s depictions of the future on screen, it’s already starring in entertainment behind the scenes, thanks to Netflix.Justin Basilico, research and engineering director at Netflix, stopped by NVIDIA’s AI Podcast to talk about how the streaming company applies deep learning to keep subscribers like us engaged.“What we saw in … some of our own experiences internally at Netflix was that the typical deep learning approaches apply to the traditional recommendation system problem,” Basilico said in a conversation with AI Podcast host Noah Kravitz. “It wasn’t until recently in the past few years that really there’s kind of a paradigm shift where people are really starting to see the attraction in using [recommendations for deep learning].”

Spotlight

Break Media

Break Media is the single largest creator and distributor of male-targeted content online, reaching an audience of more than 200 million people through video and editorial content. Properties include the largest humor site online—Break.com—as well as leading properties in the gaming, humor and men's lifestyle verticals. Break Media’s in-house production studio creates original content that ranges from branded entertainment to award winning series. Break Media also is at the forefront of multi-platform video delivery, with applications downloaded millions of times across a spectrum of mobile devices and connected TV.

OTHER ARTICLES
Virtualization

Stride Is Mirror’s Edge VR In Everything But Name

Article | June 21, 2021

Ever since the Oculus Rift was first introduced, people have wanted a Mirror’s Edge VR game. Years later, Stride looks to deliver where EA hasn’t. The first footage for Stride, which debuted over the weekend, promises essentially a VR doppelganger of DICE’s beloved series. Players hop between rooftops using parkour, avoiding enemy gunfire and taking opponents down as they go. But while the game sounds similar to Mirror’s Edge, it looks practically identical; bleached-white buildings are peppered with vibrantly-highlighted objects you can use for progression.

Read More
Technologies

First Look At Sony PlayStation 5 UI

Article | February 14, 2022

PlayStation 5 event date was previously postponed due to the intolerance and injustice that plagued the USA. While Sony lead the way, as a beacon of solidarity, several other companies followed. At that time, the best people could do is stand beside one another. However, recently some of the features of PS 5 were revealed. An advertisement on Twitch, along with an official post from PlayStation, confirmed the event date. Scheduled on June 11th, one can expect people to be extremely hyped up for this. The fact that everyone had to wait too long for PS 5 makes this news much more exciting.

Read More
Technologies, Business

Microgaming Collaborates With Inspired Entertainment To Enhance Gaming Experience

Article | July 20, 2022

As part of the deal, both the firms will work together to enhance the network capacities of each other while also supporting the expansion plans significantly. It will diversify the Microgaming’s product offerings such as slots, virtual sports, table games, etc. and will give a boost to the outreach plans of Inspired’s content. Inspired will offer 20 of its most innovative and widely played online slot games through Microgaming’s interface. The games offered will include Anubis Wild Megaways™, Prison Escape™, and Stacked Fire 7s™ along with the infusion of virtual and table games in the near future.

Read More
Technologies

Live Sports TV Executive Predictions: Cloud-Based Production Is the Future

Article | February 14, 2022

As we all start to come out of the pandemic and its effects, we see distributed workflows being the normal standard of operations more and more. Distributed workflows go hand in hand with cloud production where we are not dependent on a physical rack room of gear. Due to the chip shortages, we are definitely seeing in the audio industry an acceleration in software designed solutions. More and more solutions are going to depend on common computing infrastructure in order to handle the ever increasing demand of products that just simply cannot be manufactured. This change is only going to strengthen the move to the cloud and the distributed workflow in audio and video production. Working with cloud-based production brings so much more flexibility to the table. Flexibility in design, flexibility in costs, and flexibility in staffing. With the distributed workflow model, we simplify so many of our logistics for an event. We will see more opportunities where we can use our best talent for the position multiple times a week instead of wasting a day or two traveling to a site. The bigger part of all of this change is the higher quality of life our employees can enjoy. We made this change to a distributed workflow almost 5 years ago and it has resulted in happier employees along with more productivity. The pandemic accelerated the process to the masses. Cloud workflows along with distributed workers where possible are here to stay.

Read More
Virtualization

Applications of Virtual Reality in Healthcare

Article | June 21, 2021

Ever since the Oculus Rift was first introduced, people have wanted a Mirror’s Edge VR game. Years later, Stride looks to deliver where EA hasn’t. The first footage for Stride, which debuted over the weekend, promises essentially a VR doppelganger of DICE’s beloved series. Players hop between rooftops using parkour, avoiding enemy gunfire and taking opponents down as they go. But while the game sounds similar to Mirror’s Edge, it looks practically identical; bleached-white buildings are peppered with vibrantly-highlighted objects you can use for progression.

Read More
Technologies

Live Sports TV Executive Predictions: Cloud-Based Production Is the Future

Article | February 14, 2022

PlayStation 5 event date was previously postponed due to the intolerance and injustice that plagued the USA. While Sony lead the way, as a beacon of solidarity, several other companies followed. At that time, the best people could do is stand beside one another. However, recently some of the features of PS 5 were revealed. An advertisement on Twitch, along with an official post from PlayStation, confirmed the event date. Scheduled on June 11th, one can expect people to be extremely hyped up for this. The fact that everyone had to wait too long for PS 5 makes this news much more exciting.

Read More
Technologies, Business

Discord: A Novel Medium for B2B Marketing

Article | July 20, 2022

As part of the deal, both the firms will work together to enhance the network capacities of each other while also supporting the expansion plans significantly. It will diversify the Microgaming’s product offerings such as slots, virtual sports, table games, etc. and will give a boost to the outreach plans of Inspired’s content. Inspired will offer 20 of its most innovative and widely played online slot games through Microgaming’s interface. The games offered will include Anubis Wild Megaways™, Prison Escape™, and Stacked Fire 7s™ along with the infusion of virtual and table games in the near future.

Read More
Technologies

Live Sports TV Executive Predictions: Cloud-Based Production Is the Future

Article | February 14, 2022

As we all start to come out of the pandemic and its effects, we see distributed workflows being the normal standard of operations more and more. Distributed workflows go hand in hand with cloud production where we are not dependent on a physical rack room of gear. Due to the chip shortages, we are definitely seeing in the audio industry an acceleration in software designed solutions. More and more solutions are going to depend on common computing infrastructure in order to handle the ever increasing demand of products that just simply cannot be manufactured. This change is only going to strengthen the move to the cloud and the distributed workflow in audio and video production. Working with cloud-based production brings so much more flexibility to the table. Flexibility in design, flexibility in costs, and flexibility in staffing. With the distributed workflow model, we simplify so many of our logistics for an event. We will see more opportunities where we can use our best talent for the position multiple times a week instead of wasting a day or two traveling to a site. The bigger part of all of this change is the higher quality of life our employees can enjoy. We made this change to a distributed workflow almost 5 years ago and it has resulted in happier employees along with more productivity. The pandemic accelerated the process to the masses. Cloud workflows along with distributed workers where possible are here to stay.

Read More
MORE ARTICLES

Spotlight

Break Media

Break Media is the single largest creator and distributor of male-targeted content online, reaching an audience of more than 200 million people through video and editorial content. Properties include the largest humor site online—Break.com—as well as leading properties in the gaming, humor and men's lifestyle verticals. Break Media’s in-house production studio creates original content that ranges from branded entertainment to award winning series. Break Media also is at the forefront of multi-platform video delivery, with applications downloaded millions of times across a spectrum of mobile devices and connected TV.

Related News

A Netflix for video games? Why a longtime dream is closer than ever to coming true

washingtonpost | January 28, 2019

When Cory Burdette awoke recently to learn that Winter Storm Gia had caused a two-hour school delay in Reston, Va., he seized the chance to do a little family bonding. Plopping down in front of the TV, Burdette and his 5-year-old daughter spent the morning together playing Minecraft, the Lego-like adventure game where players construct buildings out of virtual blocks.“We play all our games together on the Xbox,” he said. “In Minecraft, we both get to build a house together, find monsters and explore.”The first time he fired up the game, Burdette had to wait for Minecraft to download and install on his Xbox before launching it. But by the time his daughter is old enough to play more-adult games, that wait could be a thing of the past.Major companies including Microsoft and Verizon are exploring how to replace game downloads with Internet-based game services, hoping to do for video gaming what Netflix and Spotify have done with TV and music. Instead of being run directly from a device, high-quality games of the future could be streamed from a data center, with most of the computations and image rendering performed by powerful servers many miles away before being piped online to players' phones, PCs and consoles.

Read More

Netflix adds Instagram Stories support for directly sharing shows

slashgear | January 22, 2019

Netflix is just about everywhere, thanks in no small part to its vast and largely successful original content library, and as of today, it can now be found in yet another place: Instagram Stories. The new integration makes it possible for Netflix users to directly share their favorite content with followers, but not everyone has access to it.Before Facebook made it possible to directly share content from third-party apps, Instagram users had to take a screenshot from a different app and then share that image in their Instagram Story. The workaround is common, but cumbersome, potentially resulting in lower quality images and requiring more time overall to complete the process.Instagram Stories got support for directly sharing from third-party websites last year, and now Netflix is taking advantage of the feature. Users can open Netflix’s in-app sharing option — which has been around for a while and includes messaging platforms like WhatsApp — to find the new Stories option.

Read More

Fortnite is so big even Netflix is feeling the heat

slashgear | January 18, 2019

When it comes to competition in the entertainment industry, you might be tempted to think that companies only consider similar services to be competitors. For instance, Netflix and Hulu obviously compete with one another, but what about Netflix and Fortnite? As it turns out, Netflix considers Fortnite a major competitor, and it often loses out to the popular game when it comes to winning screen time.On the heels of its freshly-announced price hike, Netflix has delivered a letter to investors in which it covers the state of the company. One section is that letter, titled “Competiton,” is particularly telling, as Netflix reveals that Fortnite is an even bigger competitor than one of its oldest rivals.“We earn consumer screen time, both mobile and television, away from a very broad set of competitors,” Netflix said. “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.” The call out to Fortnite might seem a little weird at first, but the game attracts tens of millions of players a month, and time spent playing Fortnite means that time isn’t spent watching things on Netflix.

Read More

A Netflix for video games? Why a longtime dream is closer than ever to coming true

washingtonpost | January 28, 2019

When Cory Burdette awoke recently to learn that Winter Storm Gia had caused a two-hour school delay in Reston, Va., he seized the chance to do a little family bonding. Plopping down in front of the TV, Burdette and his 5-year-old daughter spent the morning together playing Minecraft, the Lego-like adventure game where players construct buildings out of virtual blocks.“We play all our games together on the Xbox,” he said. “In Minecraft, we both get to build a house together, find monsters and explore.”The first time he fired up the game, Burdette had to wait for Minecraft to download and install on his Xbox before launching it. But by the time his daughter is old enough to play more-adult games, that wait could be a thing of the past.Major companies including Microsoft and Verizon are exploring how to replace game downloads with Internet-based game services, hoping to do for video gaming what Netflix and Spotify have done with TV and music. Instead of being run directly from a device, high-quality games of the future could be streamed from a data center, with most of the computations and image rendering performed by powerful servers many miles away before being piped online to players' phones, PCs and consoles.

Read More

Netflix adds Instagram Stories support for directly sharing shows

slashgear | January 22, 2019

Netflix is just about everywhere, thanks in no small part to its vast and largely successful original content library, and as of today, it can now be found in yet another place: Instagram Stories. The new integration makes it possible for Netflix users to directly share their favorite content with followers, but not everyone has access to it.Before Facebook made it possible to directly share content from third-party apps, Instagram users had to take a screenshot from a different app and then share that image in their Instagram Story. The workaround is common, but cumbersome, potentially resulting in lower quality images and requiring more time overall to complete the process.Instagram Stories got support for directly sharing from third-party websites last year, and now Netflix is taking advantage of the feature. Users can open Netflix’s in-app sharing option — which has been around for a while and includes messaging platforms like WhatsApp — to find the new Stories option.

Read More

Fortnite is so big even Netflix is feeling the heat

slashgear | January 18, 2019

When it comes to competition in the entertainment industry, you might be tempted to think that companies only consider similar services to be competitors. For instance, Netflix and Hulu obviously compete with one another, but what about Netflix and Fortnite? As it turns out, Netflix considers Fortnite a major competitor, and it often loses out to the popular game when it comes to winning screen time.On the heels of its freshly-announced price hike, Netflix has delivered a letter to investors in which it covers the state of the company. One section is that letter, titled “Competiton,” is particularly telling, as Netflix reveals that Fortnite is an even bigger competitor than one of its oldest rivals.“We earn consumer screen time, both mobile and television, away from a very broad set of competitors,” Netflix said. “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.” The call out to Fortnite might seem a little weird at first, but the game attracts tens of millions of players a month, and time spent playing Fortnite means that time isn’t spent watching things on Netflix.

Read More

Events