Amazon removes AI recap from Fallout after mistakes — including one key blunder

Amazon has removed an AI recap function from Prime Video after users pointed out it made a string of errors about Fallout.

The video game adaptation, which stars Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell and Kyle MacLachlan, debuted last year and is set to return for second season next week (December 17).

Prime Video introduced what it called a “first-of-it-kind” tool to help viewers catch up on the first season. However, the AI made a string of errors when recapping the series.

One key blunder saw the AI claim that flashback sequences were set in the 1950s, when in fact the retro-futuristic scenes take place in 2077.

When the function was first announced in November, Prime Video’s vice president of technology Gérard Medioni said: “Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming.

“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.”

On X, one fan wrote: “Fallout on Prime added a season 1 recap but don’t bother watching it, it’s AI slop that gets several details wrong like the flashbacks being set in the 1950s and “Cooper offers Lucy a choice in the finale: die, or join him” phrased as if he’d be the one to kill her.”

Another questioned the use of AI in the first place, writing: “AI for a recap??? I’ve cut or supervised dozens of recaps over the years. Typically they are done by assistant editors- one of the lower paid people on the post team- and are completed in the course of normal work hours- not even extra time. We know the show and how to present it best.”

The first season of Fallout received a mixed response last year. In a three-star review for The Independent, television critic Nick Hilton wrote: “In 2023, The Last of Us set a new standard for video game adaptations. The proximity of that release, and its similarly apocalyptic setting, will make comparisons inevitable.

“But not only are the two shows tonally distinct from each other, they’re also very differently structured. The Last of Us had a cinematic roadmap to follow, whereas Fallout picks and chooses its iconography, characters and plot from across the game series...

“What Fallout lacks in narrative coherence it makes up for in sheer cyberpunk chutzpah. That may leave non-gamers a little baffled, but for those already invested in this atomic dust bowl, it should prove a satisfying, if not sensational, extension of the franchise – just about more bang than whimper.”