Tubi, the last great streaming service, has managed to piss off at least some of its fans who look forward to scrolling through the forgotten ’90s classics the platform has managed to get their hands on. This week, the company (notably owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation) decided to go AI-powered by launching its first native streaming app for ChatGPT and powering its recommendation algorithm with AI, in hopes of appealing to the coveted Gen Z demographic. Early returns suggest the plan is backfiring.
At first glance, there’s nothing too unpleasant about Tubi’s AI product. With the ChatGPT app, users simply type in plain language requests for content like “movies that feel like fever dreams but aren’t horror” or “tonight’s thrillers.” Requests can be made in a standard ChatGPT conversation by calling the streamer @Tubi. It seems fine, especially if having access to Tubi’s library improves responsiveness. If you’ve ever used AI to search for movies (either intentionally or because Google directs you to the AI overview when searching for something basic), you know that most of the time you’ll see the five most common and predictable results imaginable. Wow, that’s a very helpful suggestion as no one would have thought to watch “Interstellar” or “The Martian” when looking for a movie about space.
Tubi is also reportedly using AI to improve personalized content recommendations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Once again, this is a very normal use of AI. Machine learning-based recommendation systems have been around essentially since the days of streaming, and they were one of the big differentiators for Netflix that made the platform so appealing to viewers. If you can give people better recommendations on what to watch, you can keep them on the app longer (a win for ad-supported Tubi) and give them what they want. In theory, it’s a win-win.
Where Tubi appears to be losing people and antagonizing supporters on social media is its reported embrace of AI-generated content. According to WSJ, Tubi plans to increase the amount of “creator-created” content it offers within its app. This includes videos that are partially or entirely created by AI. It’s something that most people simply aren’t interested in (at least, they say they’re not interested; someone is giving these AI-generated YouTube channels billions of views).
Tubi’s embrace of AI appears to be part of a broader plan to appeal to younger audiences. The company believes it needs to compete with the TikToks and YouTubes of the world for attention, and sees AI as an opportunity to gain a foothold. However, the platform may be misreading the room. While Gen Z is certainly exposed to a lot of AI and isn’t afraid to take advantage of the technology, polls show that the demos are increasingly disillusioned about its impact.
Generative AI seems to be having such a negative impact on most people that even commonplace uses of the technology have become offensive to people. It’s best to just say that Tubi is improving its search and recommendation capabilities without labeling it as AI. It’s definitely better not to let AI slop take over that platform.
