Your queue might look different: Netflix’s new AI shakes up recommendations
Netflix is testing a new way to pick what you watch next, and the twist could rewrite how your watchlist fills up.
A new tab with a red gem icon has started popping up on supported TV apps for a small group of U.S. Netflix members: AI Discover. Instead of tossing you into endless rows, it asks what you’re in the mood for, then builds a lane of picks to match. The feature quietly went live on November 3 and is rolling out to more testers over the coming weeks.
It works off plain-English themes, each introduced with a short video. Pick a vibe, get a stack of movies and shows that fit, then drill down into narrower themes or bail out with a “Something Different” button if the lane isn’t clicking.
Every title card includes a “Tune Your Recommendations” control next to Play and My List. You can lock in a good match or tell Netflix to stop surfacing a miss. The AI remembers that feedback inside Discover so you’re not haunted by the same bad fit tomorrow.
Under the hood, Netflix says its in-house intelligence layer adapts to your choices in real time. The company is treating the tab as a “test kitchen,” where features that work could graduate into the main app. For now, the experiment serves English-language viewers in the U.S., with access expanding over the next few weeks.
$587 million in cash — that’s what Netflix ultimately paid for Ben Affleck’s AI company, per a later regulatory filing reported by TechCrunch.
Behind the camera
Netflix’s AI push isn’t just about the home screen. In March, the streamer acquired InterPositive, the artificial-intelligence filmmaking outfit Ben Affleck founded in 2022. The company builds postproduction tools aimed at fixing missing shots, smoothing out inconsistent lighting, and replacing backgrounds — the stuff productions usually burn time and money chasing by hand.
Affleck set up InterPositive on the idea that creative judgment belongs to people. Its systems were trained to understand the visual logic of real film sets, and the toolkit is designed with guardrails to preserve a director ’s choices. Netflix brought the InterPositive team in-house and named Affleck a senior adviser following the deal.
Back on the couch, AI Discover remains an experiment. If it sticks the landing, Netflix says elements could be folded into the core app as the test grows beyond that initial U.S. group in the coming weeks.