Talent scouts are now computer code.
Streamers and movie studios are now using sophisticated algorithms to find the latest talent and, more importantly, to tell you what you are going to watch.
Netflix’s early “you might like” this show has been replaced by computer programs that scour the Internet looking at things like YouTube “likes” and social media buzz and Google search queries and other big data to guide the producers as to what to push to you as content.
Some of the code is so-called “artificial intelligence,” while part is merely data analysis that hashes through millions of data points and comes up with recommendations as to who will be the next big movie star or the next “House of Cards.”
IndieWire notes that one company looks at Tor downloads of pirated movies and TV shows to predict the future.
Does this mean that William Goldman’s lament that “Nobody knows anything” is dead. Or are these companies just paying for the latest digital snake oil?
Time will tell.
Source: https://jeffkoeppel.wordpress.com/2021/07/16/prophets-or-snake-oil-salesmen/
