Prime Video just got a big AI upgrade — meet X-Ray recaps

Amazon Prime Video logo on TV screen
(Image credit: Prime Video)

Amazon is turning to artificial intelligence for its latest ‘X-ray’ feature. Now, if you get distracted by TikTok while watching a TV show on Prime Video you’ll get a brief recap of what you missed.

Dubbed "X-Ray Recaps", the content will be personalized to your viewing habits and provide a catch-up summary up to the point you last watched. This will be in the form of "short textual snippets of key cliffhangers" and character-driven plots.

Amazon says it will generate a recap regardless of where you are watching or when you stopped watching. This includes whether you took a coffee break a few minutes in or fell asleep five minutes from the end.

Don't worry about spoilers as Amazon promises the recaps will be spoiler-free (even for its best releases), so if you do want to go back and watch the bits you missed you won't have to worry about knowing exactly what happened.

How do X-Ray recaps work?

Amazon Prime Video

(Image credit: Amazon Prime Video)

Amazon says X-Ray Recaps are designed to help people catch up if they missed a crucial point in a show, or if they're coming back to a show after a long gap.

They are designed to be a way to see what happened without risking spoilers from an online summary or glimpsing part of the action by rewinding.

Adam Gray, vice president of product at Prime Video explained that the Recaps are 'context-aware' to the time and position in the video.

He says this allows Prime Video to "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.”

Using custom Amazon AI models trained on the video segments, subtitles and dialogue of the Prime Video library, it can create descriptions of key events, places, times and even conversations. It then applies guardrails to ensure it is spoiler-free and easy to read at a distance.

How to get X-Ray Recaps

Amazon Upload on TV with x-ray open

(Image credit: Amazon)

X-Ray Recaps are available to anyone with a Prime Video account. Just go to the Prime Video detail page for the show or open the X-Ray experience during playback.

You can pick from a range of recap types including summaries of a current episode, the season so far or a previous season if you're finally watching that delayed release.

For now, it is only available as a beta release to Fire TV customers in the U.S. but Amazon says it will be on a wider range of devices by the end of the year. There are no details on an international release plan.

For now, the best shows to try it on are: "Daisy Jones and the Six", "Mr and Mrs Smith", "Wheel of Time", and "The Boys".

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Ryan Morrison
AI Editor

Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?

  • Fox Tread3
    November 5, 2024 - I realize that I should reserve the term "hate" for people and things that do me and mine possible criminal harm. However, I shall say...that I extremely dislike X-Ray on Amazon Prime. If I am not mistaken, not long ago it was necessary to actively select the X-Ray "feature". Now, according to the information I have been able to obtain. It is impossible to turn off X-Ray. Why Amazon Prime thinks this is a good idea is beyond me. Everytime I pause what I am watching, X-Ray will pop up in the far left corner of my screen with info about the actors/actresses that are in the scene. Now... they are pandering to the people that spend more time on their phones than watching what is on their screens. Yes.. I'm old, and decades ago, viewers paid close attention to what they were actually watching on their TVs. Commercial breaks were used for conversation amongst the people watching the film/TV production, getting refreshments, and/or "making a pit stop". Now in the age of "multitasking", people try to do numerous things while "watching" something on their screen or device. One of my theories as to why film and TV productions are so subpar. Is because the entertainment industry knows its audience, and knows that their attention is so divided. That they will accept even the worst possible productions, and actually think they are great.
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