Amazon’s Prime Video is integrating AI into the streaming platform, allowing viewers to read instant TV recaps at the click of a button instead of watching the show. Forget having to catch up on The Boys before Season 5, Prime Video will soon be able to summarize what happens in each episode without you having to actually watch them. If that sounds bleak, then you are one of many out there thinking, what the heck Amazon is doing? Well, the mega-corporation says the major new feature is something audiences have been clamoring for.

Amazon officially announced the impending rollout of the AI-generated recap feature, revealing that it will inexplicably manage to recap episodes for viewers without actually spoiling the shows. Called X-Ray Recaps, audiences watching original TV shows on Prime Video, like The Boys or Mr. and Mrs. Smith, will be able to click X-Ray to get the AI-written summarization. According to Amazon’s official description, X-Ray Recaps can be used at any point in time while viewing an episode or season, recapping key moments viewers may have missed due to a variety of reasons.

X-Ray Recaps is a generative AI-powered feature that creates brief, easy-to-digest summaries of full seasons of TV shows, single episodes, and even pieces of episodes, all personalized down to the exact minute of where you are watching. Whether you’re a few minutes into a new episode, halfway through a season, or took a break from watching a series and need a refresher, X-Ray Recaps delivers short textual snippets of key cliffhangers, character-driven plot points, and other details that can be accessed at any point in your viewing experience.

The vice president of product at Prime Video, Adam Gray, is adamant that the new X-Ray feature is “addressing a common problem customers face when streaming content.” Of course, viewers missing key information while watching a show at home is certainly common due to external distractions. We’ve all been there, you look away from the screen for a few minutes and walk back confused as to what happened. Instead of simply just rewinding it and experiencing it firsthand as intended by the creatives behind the television series, Amazon is keen on using AI to bridge the gap.

“Prime Video product and technology teams work relentlessly behind the scenes to enhance customers’ viewing experience, and with the creation of X-Ray Recaps, we’re directly addressing a common problem customers face when streaming content: forgetting where they left off. With this context-aware functionality, Prime Video will deliver summaries of memorable moments and important plot points so our customers can quickly jump back into what they were watching or rediscover why they fell in love with a series in the first place.”

AI is Becoming More Common in the Film/TV Industry

Despite union workers striking in part to regulate and limit the growing use of AI in the Film/TV industry, major studios are slowly but surely implementing the emerging technology into their “creative process.” For instance, Lionsgate, which has had an abysmal year at the box office, is going to have an AI model trained on their most popular franchises, like John Wick and the Hunger Games, to engage in “capital-efficient content creation opportunities.” In other words, due to their failures in 2024, which include duds like The Crow, Borderlands, and more, they are hoping AI will help revitalize the once-successful studio. I’m not sure if most people need AI to tell them a The Crow remake wasn’t going to do well at the box office, but to each their own.

Related Why A24’s Latest Horror Movie Includes an AI Disclaimer in the Credits The directors of Heretic want to make their stance on AI as clear as possible.

Of course, Lionsgate is not and will not be the only major studio to start implementing AI sooner rather than later. Disney recently announced a major AI initiative that will become a part of their filmmaking process, only a year after they laid off thousands of employees and denied bonuses to many who worked for Pixar. Even a company as successful as Disney is looking to improve profit margins across the board using AI, no matter the cost to its employees. Projects already confirmed to feature AI from various studios include Secret Invasion, Late Night with the Devil, and more. The main AI culprit seems to be on the marketing side of things, with A24 using it to create teaser posters for Civil War.