February 11, 2014

Netflix Hopes To Improve Personalisation With Deep-Learning

By Daniel Price

Netflix Deep Learning

Netflix have used a blog post to detail how the world’s largest on-demand video provider has been experimenting with deep learning. Their methodology has involved using artificial neural networks to provide users with highly specialized content recommendations.

Researchers Alex Chen and Justin Basilico detail how they have been using Nvidia graphic processing units operating in Amazon Web Services’ public cloud infrastructure with the goal of replicating how a viewer’s brain functions.

At this stage it is unclear on what is being planned or how their work will be implemented. The blog’s authors do not go into detail about the specifics of the project beyond saying that it will be used for “personalisation of recommendations”.

Nonetheless, their post is intriguing. Netflix currently streams over two billion hours of video every month and has a global user base of 44 million, meaning it already has a vast amount of knowledge regarding user data and viewing habits. They have information on a person’s preferences for genres, directors, writers and actors that no other TV or film company in the world can match.

If you add this knowledge to their existing physical infrastructure there is no limit to what may be possible for the cloud-based provider. The concept of deep learning inherently requires making inferences based on the data available, whether that is a photo, text, a video or other form of information. If Netflix can effectively harness this data and integrate it into their deep-learning technologies it could revolutionise the world of on-demand video.

Equally notable is the blog’s proof that Netflix is confident in its cloud strategy, despite the loss of prominent cloud-computing expert Adrian Cockcroft last month. Chen and Basilico state, “Implementing bleeding edge solutions such as using GPUs to train large-scale Neural Networks can be a daunting endeavour. If you need to do it in your own custom infrastructure, the cost and the complexity might be overwhelming. Levering the public AWS cloud can have obvious benefits, provided care is taken in the customization and use of the Instance resources”.

While the news is undoubtedly good publicity for both Amazon and Nvidia – if the technology can be developed in the way Netflix hope, it will provide them with huge commercial opportunities in the future. By joining Pinterest, Yahoo, and Facebook in the early pursuit of deep-learning technology, the company clearly believe there are huge benefits available and that commercialisation of the field is closer than many would have believed.

By Daniel Price

Daniel Price

Daniel is a Manchester-born UK native who has abandoned cold and wet Northern Europe and currently lives on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. A former Financial Consultant, he now balances his time between writing articles for several industry-leading tech (CloudTweaks.com & MakeUseOf.com), sports, and travel sites and looking after his three dogs.
Metasploit-Penetration-Testing-Software-Pen-Testing-Security

Leading Cloud Vulnerability Scanners

Vulnerability Scanners Cyber security vulnerabilities are a constant nuisance and it certainly doesn’t help with [...]
Read more
Rakesh Soni

Breaking Barriers with the Cloud: How Computing is Unlocking New Business Horizons

Breaking Barriers with the Cloud The ever-increasing rate of global cloud adoption is enough to [...]
Read more
Randy

Gain Critical AI Insights: The Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme

Acquire Essential Skills for Success in the AI Industry The expansion of online learning within [...]
Read more
Jeremy Smillie

Securing the Future: Insights from DevSecOps Expert, Jeremy Smillie

Welcome to another insightful discussion on CloudTweaks. Today, we have the privilege of delving into [...]
Read more
Surya Kant Verma

Choosing the Right Cloud Platform: A Guide to Finding Secure, Cost-Efficient Solutions

Choosing the Right Cloud Platform Cloud computing has revolutionized how organizations work, offering an increased [...]
Read more
Dmytro Reshetchenko

Digital Solutions for Legal Matchmaking: The Role of AI in Connecting Clients with Lawyers

The Role of AI in Connecting Clients with Lawyers The legal industry is transforming significantly [...]
Read more

SPONSOR PARTNER

Explore top-tier education with exclusive savings on online courses from MIT, Oxford, and Harvard through our e-learning sponsor. Elevate your career with world-class knowledge. Start now!
© 2024 CloudTweaks. All rights reserved.