Tubi's ChatGPT integration sparks backlash as fans reject AI recommendations over human touch

Tubi Manages to Turn People Against Recommendations With Bad AI Branding

Tubi, the last good streaming service, has managed to piss off at least a portion of the fans who would otherwise be thrilled to scroll through whatever forgotten '90s classics the platform managed to get its hands on. This week, the company (which, it should be noted, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporation) decided to AI-ify by launching the first native streaming app for ChatGPT and juicing its recommendation algorithms with AI in hopes of appealing to the coveted Gen Z demographic. Early returns suggest the plan is backfiring. On its face, there's really nothing all that objectionable about Tubi's AI offerings. The ChatGPT app just lets users type in plain-language requests for content, like “a movie that feels like a fever dream but isn’t horror," or "a thriller for tonight.†The requests can be made in a standard ChatGPT conversation by summoning the streamer with "@Tubi." Seems fine, especially if having access to Tubi's library makes the responses better, because if you've ever used AI (intentionally or because Google funnels you into the AI Overview when you search for basic stuff) to try to search for a movie, you know that most of the time the results are like, the five most generic and predictable picks imaginable. Like, wow, no one would have thought to watch "Interstellar" or "The Martian" when looking for movies about space, super helpful suggestions. Tubi is also reportedly using AI to improve its personalized content recommendations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Once again, a pretty normal use for AI. Machine learning-based recommendation systems have been around basically as long as streaming has, and used to be one of the big differentiators that Netflix would point to that made its platform so sticky for viewers. If you can provide people with better recommendations for what to watch, it keeps them in your app longer (a win for Tubi, which is ad-supported) and it gives them what they want. In theory, it's a win-win. Where Tubi is losing peopleâ€"and what has seemingly turned its supporters against it on social mediaâ€"is the reported embrace of AI-generated content. Per WSJ, Tubi is planning to increase the amount of "creator-made" content that it serves up in its app. That will include video made, in part or wholly, by AI. That is something that most people simply aren't interested in. (Or at least they say they aren'tâ€"someone is giving these AI-generated YouTube channels billions of views.) Tubi's embrace of AI seems to be part of a broader plan to appeal to younger viewers. The company believes that it needs to compete with the TikToks and YouTubes of the world for eyeballs, and it thinks that AI presents an opportunity to gain a foothold. But the platform might be misreading the room. Gen Z is certainly exposed to plenty of AI and isn't afraid to make use of the technology, but polls show the demo is getting increasingly disillusioned about its implications. It seems like generative AI has poisoned the well so much for most people that it's made even pretty vanilla uses of the technology now leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Tubi would probably be better off just saying it's improving its search and recommendation features without slapping the AI label on it. It'd definitely be better off not letting AI slop take over its platform.

Tubi wants you to ask ChatGPT what to watch to avoid human recommendations

Will Smith's biggest sci-fi bomb is blowing back up on streaming (yet no one will ever see it the right way) Tubi, the ad-supported service where you can watch everything from masterpieces like Goodfellas to schlocky erotic spy movies such as Malibu Express all for free, is one of our most robust streaming platforms. While the Fox-owned company has signed lucrative deals with Universal and Warner Bros. to ensure a steady slate of recognizable titles, I get the most joy from Tubi when I'm at the bottom of the barrel, finding whatever lost films have managed to survive the closing of rental stores and find a home outside the majors like Netflix. Sure, I could watch great movies like Dredd or Sunshine on Tubi, or I could learn for myself why Mandroid has an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. I always choose the latter path. At Polygon, we nurture that sense of discovery... and demand people tell us when they watch something awesome. We love mining for hidden gems and begging you to watch them when you can. If I stumble upon Arena, an unsung Star Wars-meets-Rocky B-movie from 1989, you better believe I will race to the nearest computer terminal to type out an ode to Arena in hopes that you too will watch it. So it brings me no pleasure to announce that Tubi made me a little mad on Thursday morning, when I found out that the company had just launched a first-of-its kind app inside ChatGPT to provide chatbots with the ability to recommend Tubi movies based on users' vibes. According to the press release, users can add Tubi's app from ChatGPT app store and type "@Tubi" to hunt for what they're in the mood for, "whether that's 'a movie that feels like a fever dream but isn't horror' or 'a thriller for tonight.'" OK. Related 3 movie masterpieces buried on Tubi (that you can watch for free) If you don't mind a few ads, there's gold to be found Posts 1 "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 product and technology officer, said in a statement. "At the core of Tubi is a deeply scaled personalization and discovery system, trained on more than 1 billion monthly hours of viewing from over 100 million active users. Recent AI breakthroughs are compounding that advantage, enhancing how Tubi interprets intent, reasons over content, and connects viewers to the right titles faster. This launch brings that system into a conversational interface, making it seamless to go from an idea to the perfect match and content rabbit hole." OK. With Google having been in the automated movie recommendation for years now, it's no surprise to see a tech-forward company like Tubi vying for a spot on the ground floor of how many, many people will decide what to watch in the future. But it's unclear if someone stoned enough to want to watch "a movie that feels like a fever dream but isn't horror" would have the capacity to type that into ChatGPT -- or if anyone would lift a finger to seek out a recommendation of any kind. Because here's the thing about people that none of the chatbot preaching seems to understand: people have no idea what they want. And the endless scroll of 30,000 movie-deep streaming libraries have only flattened the Normal Viewer's ability to discern their own preferences for going back and watching something remotely old. If it's not in a top slot of Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Tubi, or other streaming platform, you usually won't find it on any top 10 chart. What I do know is that people love a human-approved recommendation, especially when it comes to Tubi, where one man's trash is another man's treasure. I personally love Gemini Man, Will Smith's mega-bomb from 2019, but pitching it to a prospective viewer requires some explanation. If I asked a chatbot to find me a genuine masterpiece on Tubi buried under DreamWorks Animation movies, I don't know if I trust the generative AI to pull up the non-American Memories of a Murder. Is John Carpenter's "final" film horror enough or too scary for the fever-dream fan? Would anyone go to the length to ask for a Joe Keery-led found-footage thriller? Or know to cite "noir" for detective classics? I doubt rebellious queer art, gory camp classics, and lost animated films are top of mind for tech executives, so I wonder if an AI tool could really benefit those interested in such things -- or anticipate what they might like without really asking for it. Subscribe to our newsletter for human-curated streaming gems Want more trustworthy, human-curated streaming discoveries? Subscribe to our newsletter for plainspoken recommendations, hidden-gem finds, and thoughtful explanations that AI can't improvise - perfect for uncovering Tubi's best oddities and more. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. I'll never hate Tubi, the home of so many sword-and-sandal oddities, episodes of The Incredible Hulk, and a terrible-looking Asylum movie called Meth Gator which I'm going to watch later tonight. But the idea that the only needed calculus behind a fulfilling recommendation is a bot that can crunch genre tags and plot summaries into a "what to watch" response is a fallacy perpetrated by those in charge. Yes, it's personal, but also... finding good stuff to watch takes work! I would trust ChatGPT to give me a list of 10 action movies that are currently on Tubi. I would not trust ChatGPT to explain why a 2025 genre-bending invasion thriller starring Michael Jai White is worth my time. I'll stick with recommendations from people with eyeballs, brains, and funny bones.