ChatGPT can now tell you what to watch on Tubi

Hey! Do you want to be told what to watch?

Great. Tubi has you covered.

The AVOD streamer now has its own integration within ChatGPT. That means users can now tell the chatbot about their viewership likes and dislikes, and it can card through Tubi’s catalog to offer recommendations that fit those preferences.

“Streaming should feel effortless, and as chatbots and AI agents are becoming a common way people navigate the internet, Tubi is expanding its discovery experience to meet viewers in the moment they’re expressing intent in their own words,” Mike Bidgoli, Tubi’s Chief of Product and Technology, said in a statement.

Tubi’s CEO Anjali Sud added more on LinkedIn, writing, “We’re excited to be experimenting with new ways to meet our fans where they are. AI app stores and recommendations are quite new, and there’s a lot to learn. But it’s a good bet that most of us will use AI agents to navigate the internet in the future. Tubi has always invested ahead of the curve when it comes to content discovery and personalization, and we’re leaning in to help shape this emerging interface in service of viewers.”

Tubi is not the only platform to have this recommendation chatbot idea. Over the last few months, X, YouTube, and Spotify have all introduced some form of chatbot/LLM interface where users can manually tweak their recommendation algorithms.

YouTube, for example, is testing “Your Custom Feed,” where users are prompted to type an explanation (however long/short they want) about the types of content they like to watch. YouTube’s system–probably running on Google’s ChatGPT equivalent Veo–will then serve up an entire new Home page with custom video pulls.

X’s feature is similar; meanwhile Spotify says its “Prompted Playlists” tool lets listeners “steer the algorithm” in a way that essentially allows them to build their own Discover Weeklys. We get it: Users can’t complain about their personalized playlists if they’re the ones who made them!

Tubi’s feature is slightly different from X, YouTube, and Spotify’s in that the ChatGPT integration isn’t actually on Tubi’s platform. Instead, it can be found within ChatGPT’s recently launched app store, joining other apps from companies like Apple Music, Zillow, Canva, and Spotify.

As CNET mentions, Tubi did try to roll out its own AI recommendation on its platform back in 2023, but ended up shutting it down. (That tool also ran on ChatGPT.)

The real question is, if we move into an ecosystem of purely customized recommendation algorithms, will it benefit everyone? Is that the closest platforms can come to pleasing all of their users? What about regulators concerned with algorithms’ “rabbit hole” effect? And what about creators, who rely on recommendation algorithms to help grow their audiences? Will they suddenly find themselves landlocked away from a large portion of potential new viewers?

Guess we’ll find out.