Netflix to launch generative AI ads for 94 million users by 2026

Mindful Discussions
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One important note I want to emphasize is:

“These ads will be designed to blend into the viewing experience rather than disrupt it outright.”

In my opinion, this sort of subtlety they are going for is very insidious. They don’t want you to notice when you are being influenced. At least with commercials, you know it’s a commercial. But it seems more and more that brands are trying to get into our psyche without us even realizing it. It’s the equivalent of numbing us before surgery.

I don’t think this stops at “pause screen ads”, or premeditated timing. I think they are going to start generating your shopping history and web searches INTO the content you watch. We will be in even more of our own bubbles than before. The Matrix comes to mind.

Oh yeah, and these ads will be shown to people who are PAYING FOR NETFLIX ALREADY.

Some other important points:

"Netflix isn’t alone in this push.

Amazon recently introduced contextual pause ads and shoppable ads on Prime Video.

YouTube has launched a format called “Peak Points,” where its Gemini AI identifies emotionally intense moments in videos to drop ads immediately after."

What are your thoughts?

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:face_vomiting:

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On a more serious note, given the success Facebook etc have had in getting rich whilst subtly manipulating people to the will of the highest bidder, I am not surprised by this at all.

Further justification, if any were needed, to further pursue Digital Minimalism :sunglasses:

PS Highly recommend the book Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. Whilst Netflix is not strictly social media, the book explains very well (i.e. scarily) how effective this “advertising” (i.e. subtle statistical manipulation) works.

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For anyone still under the delusion that the owner of WhatsApp and Instagram and Facebook cares about your privacy, read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

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If it becomes annoying, I’ll stop my subscription. Prime shows some ads for their own shows, which doesn’t bother me too much, anything more will be annoying.

Already i’m stopping my Spotify, not because of the ads, but because they show too much unwanted suggestions.

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I’m afraid my thoughts about this can’t really be expressed in words. But it is timely because my mum wants a replacement TV in her kitchen and after looking into it, I realise that I may feel like I’ve slashed one head of the corporate attack on our senses by ditching the smart phone, but it’s a multi-headed hydra and modern TVs are next-level tracking devices.

The model they use is that Sony, LG, Panasonic etc. make the hardware but they get a digital behemoth to produce the OS/menu. So, Sony uses Google TV OS, Panasonic uses Amazon’s Fire TV OS etc. Are you sitting comfortably? These TVs use ACR (advanced content recognition). This technology can recognise what you are watching—whether it’s a TV show, movie, or advertisement—and then use that information for various purposes such as:

  • Providing personalized content recommendations
  • Enabling interactive features
  • Delivering targeted advertising
  • Enhancing user experience through smart features

ACR works by analyzing video, audio, or metadata streams and matching them against a database to identify the content. This includes content on anything you plugin e.g. a USB drive.

When applied to ads, this massive data collection is sold to 3rd parties who will then bombard you with ads across your devices and combine it with, say, your Gmal data, or your Maps data. There is no escape. Except maybe the bathroom. (Or as Aussies might say, the dunny.)

There are patents pending approval for TV ad tech where during a commercial if you leave to get a drink, when you return you must watch the ad from beginning to end before your TV show resumes. It’ll know when you’re sitting or not. A more aggressive variant awaiting patent approval is that it won’t let you resume your show until you’ve spoken the name of the brand being advertised out loud.

Just when you thought the world was horrible enough already, big tech always finds a new low.

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Remember when you could turn your TV on and it wouldn’t have to load anything? I do. Those were good times. All you had to do was turn on the TV, select your video input, set it to AUX or whatever the input was called, and you were ready to play some video games or watch the movies you owned. Now, you have to wait for your TV to load all the software. After awhile, the TV needs an update. What’s in it? That shouldn’t matter, it’s an update! Updates always make sure your TV runs perfectly, don’t they?

So you turn the wifi to the TV off and after awhile, you notice your TV crashes or starts acting stupid. “Hmm,” you think, “Perhaps I should update the TV?” You know, since TV’s need updates for some reason. So you reconnect to the wifi and you see a few pop-ups at the bottom of the screen about how awesome their subscription services are. “Yeah, right,” you say, as you ignore it. You hit Update and after a few minutes of doomscrolling the internet, you finally get your TV back. Ah, but surprise! Now you have a couple of new apps (because TV’s have to have apps now), some new random stupid features that don’t have anything to do with a TV appear and the location of certain settings have now been moved. Because updates! -Note: This literally happened to me multiple times a few months ago, not joking.

That was so much fun, remember when all you wanted to do was watch a movie? Yeah, those were good times… But now everything is a computer. Your phones, cars, entertainment, it’s all wired up to keep you coming back for more. And now that companies know you don’t like ads, well now they found out how to use AI to sneak in some ads here and there during your favorite show. You get up to get a drink, use the restroom or whatever, and regular length ad pauses? Nooooohohoho, no thank you. I’ll stick with buying my movies and video games on disc, music on CD and record and my phones as simple as possible without all the distractions.

A lot of people think it’s weird that people like their privacy or suspect you’re lying when you say you don’t use social media. Something big died when we gave our privacy up.

My rant is now complete. My apologies, but I had to just had to vent it out.

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4 days ago, I got a mail from Amazon Prime (annual subscription I use) that it is going to include ads. To remove ads I need to pay more.

We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting June 17th, 2025, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than TV channels and other streaming services. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.

We will also offer a new ad free add-on option for an additional ₹999 699 per year/ ₹129 per month* that you can sign up for starting on June 17th 2025.

There will be no other changes to your Prime membership.

Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime.

Sincerely,
The Amazon Prime team

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Companies love to ask “how much money are you willing to pay to make these ads go away” without actually asking that. Amazon already makes more money than most in the entire world, the owner has his own spaceship and they still want to push for more money.

When is enough, enough?

Also, that “Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime” part at the end sounds so disingenuous. That is annoying. "We love you so much but we have just got to get more of your money, give us more please? They aren’t hurting for money.

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Yeah, this!

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I think it’s time to go back to torrenting! SO much more control in when you watch and you actually have to think of movies that you want to watch or do some research of which movies are trending right now. This is what I have been doing for years as I am too cheap to pay for Netflix and I love it! Everything is free and more selective. Better yet, download some yoga classes or meditations. Read a book… Spend your time doing what you love!

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Here’s my two cents: This is exactly the kind of development that makes me grateful for mindful tech alternatives. When companies start using generative AI to personalize ads at scale, it’s no longer just about selling a product, it’s all about capturing attention in increasingly invasive ways- which I REALLY don’t like.

I posted a thread a while back about the new SAMSUNG TV:

The idea of AI tailoring ads based on micro-data feels like the final step toward total algorithmic manipulation of our time and thoughts. Even if we technically have the choice to opt out, the infrastructure around us is designed to pull us back in.

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Agreed, 100%. This is how they get away with offering a touch of convenience at a very big cost in the background. It’s often been that, if you watch a lot a certain genre of movie, you’ll start seeing recommendations on similar movies. Now let’s say you use the same email address that you use to stream movies to log into your online shopping accounts. You may start seeing more movies of that genre show up or wall posters of those movies you saw recently, because “we thought you would like them.”
Ad agencies buy and sell information all the time. They have that one email with associated purchases, and they know what will keep you spending. It’s not that they feel that we’re like one big happy family, we’re just dollar signs. They want to make money, and we give it to them.
Now just watching something on a TV that’s already keeping track of what people are watching and probably listening to what you’re saying allows it to push more convenience and, with AI running all the time, even more efficiently too. This is all to keep people reeled in, spending more and thinking less.

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Whenever I encounter these words I can’t help imagining them spoken by Al Pacino in his gruff voice:

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino).

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@petemeister It’s worst than the mob LOL

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Thanks for pointing this out. I’m a Netflix subscriber since Day 1 since it started in Germany back in 2014. I’ve tried Amazon, Disney+ and Apple TV as well, but never stayed a subscriber. In part because they force you to watch ads for products and content prior to the actual content you want to view. I hate that. Netflix thankfully joined this type of advertisement so far.

Once they start to subtlety shove you AI generated ads into your brain in regular content I’ll cancel my subscription in an instant.

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