Amazon has pulled its AI-powered Fallout Season 1 recap after fans noticed it made significant errors ahead of the launch of Season 2.
Prime Video began testing generative AI recaps last month for some of its shows, including Fallout. The idea is the AI will look at a show’s plot points then sum it all up in a short video alongside AI voiceover and music. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Amazon is betting AI can identify key plot points for a series to be synchronized with a voiceover narration and dialogue snippets.”
“Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming,” VP of technology at Prime Video, Gérard Medioni, explained in a statement. “This first-of-its-kind feature demonstrates Prime Video’s ongoing commitment to innovation and making the viewing experience more accessible and enjoyable for customers.”
But as reported by GamesRadar, fans soon discovered it did a poor job on Fallout. For example, Amazon’s AI appeared to have been fooled by Season 1’s flashback scenes, which it said were set in 1950s America via a monotone text-to-speech-sounding voice. Of course, as all Fallout fans know, those flashback scenes take place in a retro futuristic 2077 — the year the bombs fell.
There are further mistakes, including the narrator saying Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul gives Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean a choice to “die or leave with him” while on her quest to find her villainous father, Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank, in New Vegas (the setting of Season 2) This makes it sound like The Ghoul planned to kill Lucy if she didn’t go along with him, but in the actual show it’s more a choice of staying or leaving.
The Verge reports the Fallout recap alongside those for other shows no longer appear on a series’ detail page when you navigate to the next season. Prime Video has yet to comment.
It’s an embarrassing error for Amazon, which will be keen to avoid any negative headlines in the run up to the hotly anticipated launch of Fallout Season 2. But it’s not the first time the megacorp has raised eyebrows for its corner-cutting use of AI. Earlier this month, Amazon removed an English dub track that featured AI voices from the anime series Banana Fish after a fan backlash.
We’ve got plenty more on Fallout, including a Season 1 recap of our own, below.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
