Oct 10, 2023 / By Targeting Marketing / in AHD Technology
The sudden spike in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) has been revolutionizing various industries, ranging from healthcare to finance and even entertainment. For years now, Google's algorithm has done a fantastic job of tailoring content for its users, and those technologies have now made their way to the television landscape, as AI-powered algorithms now curate content tailored to individual preferences. But what exactly is the role of AI in Smart TVs ?
Well, one of the most significant roles of AI in Smart TVs is to enhance the viewing experience through customized content recommendation algorithms that tailor content specifically to each and every consumer. These algorithms collect vast amounts of data on your viewing preferences and, relying on machine learning, process said data to create personalized content for you to enjoy.
This works in two ways; it not only helps the platform deliver content that aligns with your viewing interests, but it also saves time by eliminating the need for performing manual content searches. The latter is quite useful, considering the sheer volume of content available on streaming platforms—which makes sifting through content much more tedious.
By processing and sifting through the data about your interests and viewing habits it collected from you, the AI can help you discover new content, not just through content recommendation but through search engines as well. But content recommendation is only a fraction of artificial intelligence's true abilities.
As stated above, all data gets collected, and this includes your settings and preferences. For example, the AI can gauge your internet connection speed and reduce or increase the quality of the streaming video or even make changes to the user interface to suit the personal preferences of the viewer. Subtitles and closed-captions are a good example of machine learning applied in television technologies.
Let's assume that you prefer watching content with closed captions, which means that you have to enable CCs each time you start a new video. Well, the AI that is integrated with your TV has the ability to recognize this pattern and enable closed captions for all the videos you watch automatically, thus saving you the trouble of enabling them manually.
Furthermore, these technologies are almost always paired with speech recognition, allowing individuals with disabilities to enjoy content. This is also used to generate closed captions, and while the technology for auto-captioning is still far from perfect, it has come a long way from its inception, enabling deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals to enjoy their favorite shows and films.
However, the real role of AI in Smart TV is to captivate attention. The 19 th -century phenomenon known as the Gold Rush was prompted by a perception of gold being a fast ticket to prosperity, which made it the most coveted resource. Now, fast forward to the 21st century. Instead of pickaxes, shovels, and gold pans, we have smartphones, laptops, and social media platforms. The new "gold" isn't a shiny metal buried in the earth but the attention of billions of people online.
Companies, influencers, and advertisers are the modern-day prospectors, constantly seeking new ways to capture and monopolize the attention of the masses. And that's the main role of AI in Smart TVs—securing your attention. Most streaming and television companies rely on advertisement as one of their main sources of revenue, and so they constantly bombard viewers with ads that make the company money.
The AI's ability to procure tailored, personalized content based on your interests and preferences serves to increase your engagement and retention on the particular platform. And the longer you stay watching content, the more ads you're served and the more money the company makes. What's most interesting about this is that everyone's in on it. Content creators, streaming platforms, and even television manufacturers—the latter have started showing ads when you're trying to enter the TV's settings menu.
Ultimately, the integration of AI technologies into television history has revolutionized the way we consume TV content, especially since the rise of streaming platforms and video-on-demand. By providing personalized content recommendations, AI is transforming the TV landscape from a mere passive viewing experience into one that's more engaging and enjoyable to you as an individual.