[hilbert42]

"Well, people want great content. So the platforms that provide it make sure that ads are positioned between, around, before, after and inside the great content. You’re going to see ads whether you like it or not."

When viewers have access to AI they can use it to eliminate ads. I've advocated this for years.

Let me give you an example from standard free-to-air terrestrial television. Say I watch TV for four hours per night, of those four hours three are actual content and the remaining hour consists of ads which are interspersed throughout the content. In effect I have to watch four hours when I really only need to watch for three. Put another way, to view the content I actually want I am forced to waste one hour of my valuable time watching useless ads.

Say my four viewing hours are from 7pm to 11pm. Now if I record the programs and tell AI to seamlessly remove the ads I can now start my viewing at 8pm. When I start viewing AI will have already removed ads from the first hour and it will continue to do so up until 11pm which is when AI's buffering will have run out—but by then I'll have had three hours of ad-free viewing.

Don't say this won't happen because it will. Already, your smartphone has tech to recognize your face and AI will be even more adept at recognizing ads and removing them.

We watch ads now because we are forced to do so not because we want to. AI put to removing ads has the potential to be a game-changer and I'd go as far to say it has the potential to seriously disrupt the ad industry to extent that it could bring a halt free content.

If content providers try to stop this then simply decouple the video recorder/AI from the TV, as these days the quality of TV cameras is such that recording the TV screen will result in negligible loss of quality. Remember, you are the viewer and you have control over your viewing environment—not the ad suppliers.

I can't wait for this to happen. What I'm suggesting is so obvious I'd reckon there are thousands already developmenting the necessary tech.

With AI we've the potential to rid ourselves of ads once and for all. It can't happen soon enough!

[pixl97]

>If content providers try to stop this then simply decouple the video recorder/AI from the TV

Lol, just you fing wait. Soon the law will demand that your AI be HDCP compliant and severe* penalties will occur if it isn't.

[lern_too_spel]

I've done this for two decades now with mythtv. The fact that you don't even know that this has existed for so long suggests it will never be mainstream.

[hilbert42]

I know it exists, it's just that it does not work well or seamlessly. AI will not only make it more mainstream but will also solve in-picture ad placements.

It also partially solves the problem in places where such hardware is illegal† as the AI solution could be solely software.

Many people don't mind ads so such solutions will likely only be taken up by those who do.

† Where I am such a device was marketed several decades ago and the TV stations took the matter to court and won, it was removed from the market.

[lern_too_spel]

Mythtv is solely software. It works seamlessly.

[hilbert42]

I've not used it as it has no Windows version, will check it out for my Linux stuff.

[rad_gruchalski]

> Say my four viewing hours are from 7pm to 11pm. Now if I record the programs and tell AI to seamlessly remove the ads I can now start my viewing at 8pm

One question only. Why would you need “an AI” for that? There are DVRs on the market with that exact feature.

[stubish]

Those devices don't work everywhere. And if they became popular enough to justify the cost of shutting them down, they would be shut down. The devices require obvious marking between content and ad, such as broadcasting the 'insert ad here' markers used by local affiliate channels or obvious changes to volume levels. There is no technical reason the ads need to be distinguishable from content at all.

[hilbert42]

"There is no technical reason the ads need to be distinguishable from content at all."

That's true, but if you tell AI to remove the offending content and replace it with a suitable library of stuff that you find acceptable then the problem is solved.