Another Crazy Day in AI: You Can Now Search Through Videos Without Scrubbing
- Wowza Team
- Jul 18
- 4 min read
Hello, AI Enthusiasts.
Before you shut the laptop or scroll into the weekend—how did this week treat you?
If it involved staring at hours of video trying to find that one moment, Amazon just made your life easier. They’ve launched two new AI models that help machines “watch” and understand video. Now you can search footage the way you’d ask a friend: “When was the first touchdown?”
While Amazon is teaching machines to watch, Netflix is letting them create. They recently used generative AI to crush a building (in a show) to help cut production costs.
But beyond video and visuals, AI is getting personal... Claude’s team sat down to reflect on how people are turning to it for emotional support and what that means for building safer, more thoughtful systems.
From movie recs to travel tips, AI might just be your low-key weekend sidekick.
Here's another crazy day in AI:
Amazon Bedrock launches video understanding tools
Netflix turns to AI effects in bid to slash costs
Claude’s affective turn raises big AI questions
Some AI tools to try out
TODAY'S FEATURED ITEM: Amazon Delivers TwelveLabs Video Technology
Image Credit: Wowza (created with Ideogram)
Have you ever spent hours scrubbing through video footage looking for one specific moment that you know exists somewhere in there?
Channy Yun, Principal Developer Advocate at AWS, shares an update on the availability of TwelveLabs video understanding models—Marengo and Pegasus—on Amazon Bedrock. These models are designed to help users work with video in more flexible, precise ways: finding specific scenes, summarizing content, or generating insights using natural language prompts. Instead of manually tagging footage or fast-forwarding through timelines, teams can now search and analyze video through text-based queries. It’s a development that could ease the strain for anyone handling large volumes of video and trying to make sense of it efficiently.
Notable capabilities include:
Searching video content through conversational queries like "find the first product demonstration" rather than scrubbing through timelines manually
Generating automatic descriptions, chapter markers, and metadata from visual content without pre-existing tags
Processing both individual files and extensive video collections while working within established AWS security frameworks
Supporting multiple input methods including Amazon S3 storage and direct video uploads to accommodate different workflows
Creating searchable databases from video archives, making visual content behave more like structured text data
Recognizing patterns and themes across multiple video sources for content analysis and operational insights
Producing detailed, timestamped summaries that capture both visual events and their chronological context
Integrating with existing AWS infrastructure through Amazon Bedrock's unified API system
The models address a genuine problem many organizations face today. Video content continues to grow exponentially, but the tools for organizing and retrieving specific information from that content haven't evolved at the same pace. Traditional approaches rely heavily on manual annotation or rigid categorization systems that work well for small libraries but become cumbersome when dealing with thousands of hours of footage. The ability to query video content using natural language could genuinely change how teams approach content management, from media production to corporate training programs.
Yet implementation questions remain. While the technology promises to streamline video workflows, organizations will need to evaluate whether the learning curve and integration costs justify the benefits for their specific use cases. The effectiveness of natural language processing can vary significantly depending on content type, video quality, and industry-specific terminology. Early adopters will essentially be testing how well these models perform across diverse scenarios and whether they can handle the nuanced queries that real-world applications demand. The broader availability across AWS regions suggests readiness for production use, but the true measure of success will be how well these tools adapt to the messy, unstructured nature of actual video libraries that organizations have accumulated over years.
Read the full article here.
OTHER INTERESTING AI HIGHLIGHTS:
Netflix Turns to AI Effects in Bid to Slash Costs
/Osmond Chia, Business Reporter, on BBC News
Netflix has used generative AI to create visual effects in a TV series for the first time, deploying it in The Eternaut to portray a collapsing building. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the move made advanced effects accessible to lower-budget productions, cutting time and costs significantly. While creators were reportedly thrilled with the results, the use of AI in filmmaking remains controversial due to concerns about artistic integrity and job displacement. The decision comes as Netflix reports a major revenue boost and growing interest in AI tools across the entertainment industry.
Read more here.
Claude’s Affective Turn Raises Big AI Questions
/Julian Horsey, Author, on Geeky Gadgets
Anthropic’s Claude is quietly becoming an unexpected source of emotional support for users, offering advice on relationships, parenting, and career dilemmas. Although originally designed for professional use, Claude is now fielding deeply personal queries—prompting the Anthropic team to sit down for a candid discussion about how the chatbot is being used. They’ve begun refining safeguards and working with clinical experts, while using privacy-preserving tools to monitor interactions without compromising data. This shift raises important questions about where we draw the line between AI as a tool and AI as a companion.
Read more here.
SOME AI TOOLS TO TRY OUT:
Intellisay – Talk through your day, get an optimized plan in 2 minutes.
Memno – Remembers and handles daily tasks, messages, meetings, and reminders, 24/7.
Kawara – Turns YouTube videos into near-ready newsletter drafts, tailored for engagement.
That’s a wrap on today’s Almost Daily craziness.
Catch us almost every day—almost! 😉
EXCITING NEWS:
The Another Crazy Day in AI newsletter is on LinkedIn!!!
Leveraging AI for Enhanced Content: As part of our commitment to exploring new technologies, we used AI to help curate and refine our newsletters. This enriches our content and keeps us at the forefront of digital innovation, ensuring you stay informed with the latest trends and developments.
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