Amazon brings generative AI-powered recaps to Prime Video

Instead of scouring the internet for a summary of a TV show, which often risks unintentionally revealing major plot points, Prime Video’s latest feature aims to save viewers from encountering any spoilers.

Amazon announced on Monday the launch of “X-Ray Recaps,” a generative AI-powered feature that creates concise summaries of entire seasons, single episodes, and even parts of episodes. Notably, the company claims that guardrails were put in place to ensure the AI doesn’t generate spoilers, so you can fully enjoy your favorite series without the anxiety of stumbling upon unwanted information. 

The new feature is an expansion of the streamers’ existing X-Ray feature, which displays information when you pause the screen, such as details about the cast and other trivia.

To use Recaps, visit the detail page of a TV show, where a new rewind icon will allow you to select from three choices: recap the current episode, recap the entire season so far, or recap the previous season.

X-Ray Recaps is currently in beta and will only be available to Fire TV customers in the U.S. to start. At launch, users can access the feature on all Amazon MGM Studios original titles, including “Daisy Jones & the Six,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “The Wheel of Time,” and “The Boys.” 

It’ll roll out to additional devices at the end of the year.

As the company explained in its blog post, the feature leverages a combination of custom AI models (built with Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker) to analyze video, subtitles, and dialogue to describe key events, conversations, and other information. 

Amazon also noted that the feature is fully personalized to align with the precise moment you’re watching. So, whether you’re just a few minutes into a new episode, midway through a season, or returning to a series you forgot about, X-Ray Recaps can provide brief snippets of scenes happening in real time.

Prime Video’s announcement comes on the heels of rival Google TV releasing AI-generated summaries, a similar tool that creates brief synopses of TV shows and movies.