Want to catch up on a favorite TV show without getting spoiled? Amazon Prime Video’s on the case, with an assist from generative AI.
Rolling out now to Amazon’s Fire TV devices, X-Ray Recaps will offer text recaps of a TV season, a particular episode, or even a portion of an episode, right up to the moment when you stopped watching—hence, no spoilers.
The feature is part of Prime Video’s X-Ray, the technology that provides a video overlay showing details on the actors in a scene, behind-the-scenes trivia, and so on.
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For now, X-Ray Recaps is in beta, and it’s restricted to just Amazon MGM Studio Original shows, including Daisy Jones and the Six, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Wheel of Time, and The Boys.
To access the recaps, just click the “Recap” button on the title detail page, or open X-Ray while watching a video for recap options under the “In Scene” tab. Among the options are recaps of a current episode, a recap of the current season, or a recap the previous season.
Xray Recaps promise concise and spoiler-free summaries of TV seasons and even episodes you haven’t finished yet.
Amazon
You can also get a summary of an episode you haven’t finished yet, with the recap being “personalized down to the exact minute of where you are watching,” Amazon says.
X-Ray Recaps creates its summaries with help from a “combination” of AI models that analyze video segments of a given show as well as its subtitles and dialogue, all before churning out textual overviews of “key events, places, times, and conversations.”
And in case you’re worried about spoilers, Amazons says there are “guardrails” in place to keep the summaries “spoiler-free and concise.”
X-Ray Recaps could indeed come in handy for brushing up on a show without fear of having major plot points or surprises ruined, but for now, its usefulness is limited by the extremely narrow range of supported shows. The feature should become even better when it expands beyond just Fire TV users, although Amazon promises the feature will come to “additional devices” before the year is out.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.