I Tried Tubi in ChatGPT and Didn't Hate It

OpenAI is trying its best to turn ChatGPT into an app platform, so you can access apps such as Adobe Photoshop, Canva, and Apple Music right inside the AI chatbot interface—and now Tubi has arrived as the first video streaming app to be available in ChatGPT.

You can't load up actual movies and TV shows from the ChatGPT prompt box, but you can search for titles that you might enjoy, and see what's available in the Tubi library. The idea is that you're never stuck for what to watch next: Tell ChatGPT and Tubi what you're looking for, and you'll get personalized results back.

As a keen watcher of films and shows, I was eager to put it to the test as soon as it became available.

What Tubi can do inside ChatGPT

You can find the Apps portal from the left-hand navigation pane inside ChatGPT on the desktop or on mobile: Search for the Tubi app, click Connect on its listing page, and from then on it'll be available through the + (plus) menu in the ChatGPT prompt box. You can also access it with a "@tubi" mention in any of your prompts.

First up I asked what to watch next if I'm a fan of classic action thrillers like The Fugitive and Crimson Tide, and Tubi delivered: Its selection of titles like Enemy of the State, No Way Out, and US Marshalls (the lesser-known sequel to The Fugitive) were pretty much spot-on, and covered a lot of other similar films I've already seen and enjoyed.

The Tubi app inside ChatGPT. Credit: Lifehacker

Tubi can tap into user ratings, too. I asked about the highest-rated TV shows of the 2020s, and it served up pretty obvious picks like Severance, Succession, and Andor. None of those, however, are available on Tubi—I got several Tubi catalog "access errors" when using the ChatGPT integration, and when they occurred, the service would just fall back on more general recommendations.

I wanted to see if I could get Tubi to recommend Drive (which is available on the platform), so asked for a "cool, 2011 thriller based on a book and set in Los Angeles." Maybe that was too many clues, but it did indeed get the film I was looking for—showing that ChatGPT and Tubi do have access to enough accurate metadata to find picks like this.

Tubi's recommendations were generally good ones. Credit: Lifehacker

I also asked for "classic TV period dramas" to see if Tubi would come back with anything I hadn't heard of before. The recommendations were rather limited, and I didn't discover anything new that I particularly wanted to watch, but given that the AI is working within the confines of the Tubi library, the results were all acceptable.

You don't only have to use Tubi inside ChatGPT for recommendations. You can also ask to see what's trending on the platform at any given time, or test your knowledge of TV shows and movies by playing the Tubi trivia game: Just ask to "test my movie knowledge" (or something along those lines) to launch it.

The pros and cons of an AI search

There's something appealing about being able to search for "a dreamy 2000s movie suitable for adults and teenagers with a reflective, wistful vibe" rather than just scrolling through a thousand titles in the "drama" category. That's the kind of nuance and natural conversation that AI bots now offer, with or without Tubi (and it came back with Lost in Translation, which is a pretty good fit).

You can run these searches in standard ChatGPT, though the Tubi integration lets you narrow down the focus to titles you'll actually be able to stream on the free platform—and if you specifically want to see something on Tubi, then it's a handy way of filtering your selection right away, without any additional steps.

You can also ask about what's trending on Tubi. Credit: Lifehacker

I could see myself turning to a recommendation tool like this again in the future, but I'm still not completely convinced. Sure, ChatGPT and the other AI bots always sound convincing, but that's by design: They're not going to admit they haven't got any relevant picks, and will always serve up something, no matter how closely (or not) it matches what you're looking for.

Ultimately, the AI models ChatGPT and Tubi are relying on haven't seen any movies or TV shows, or sat in a movie theater, or felt emotion of any kind. Whether you're plugging your requests into this new Tubi tool or scrolling through the "recommended" bar on any streaming service, you're relying on algorithms and metadata.

Some results will be limited by what's available on Tubi. Credit: Lifehacker

It's not the same as asking a trusted friend or relative for a recommendation—or indeed reading a recommendation from a human, who has actually lived through some of the experiences they're seeing on screen.

I worry that AI might be making our movie and TV show watching more flattened and generic with its recommendations—in the same way that it generates flattened, generic text and artwork—so while I'll probably fire up Tubi inside ChatGPT again in the future, I'll always keep human recommendations in the mix. And I'll still scroll for 20 minutes for hidden gems—inefficient as it may be, serendipity is how I've found some of my favorite movies.

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