Your Amazon Fire TV is getting a free generative AI upgrade. Here’s how it works

Amazon today introduced a new — unsurprising, even — feature for its Fire TV devices: an AI-powered search that should make finding your next binge-worthy show a breeze. By using a large language modeling (LLM) to process requests and deliver personalized recommendations, the company hopes its AI service will save users time and energy.

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Why was this necessary? In today’s streaming landscape, the abundance of content can be both a blessing and a curse. According to Nielsen’s 2023 State of Play report, the average streaming customer spends 10 minutes or more searching for the right show each time they sit down to watch.

This indecision and choice overload can be frustrating, but it’s even more frustrating when you know what you want to watch but can’t think of the title. The new Fire TV’s AI feature has a voice-activated solution.

The new search feature allows viewers to ask Alexa for recommendations using complex and nuanced language, covering topics, plots, characters, genres, actors, and even quotes. An example might be to say: “Alexa, show me the Seinfeld episode where Elaine dances,” or “What movie has the line, ‘You’re killing me, Smalls?'”

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Amazon says something more vague and general works, too, including: “Show me movies where people get sucked into a video game.” 

The system’s vast entertainment library includes choices from users’ Prime Video and various other streaming subscriptions, so it will be apparent which shows are available or free for you to click into.

The new Fire TV search experience has begun rolling out the English version to customers in the U.S. on Fire TV devices running FOS6 and later. It will be available on all eligible Fire TV devices in the U.S. in the coming weeks.