DirecTV wants to employ artificial intelligence to put you, your family and your pets in a custom TV screensaver. If that’s not awesome enough, this AI environment has items you can buy, whether it’s clothing similar to the one your AI is wearing or a piece of furniture that appears next to it.
It is a satellite television giant in collaboration with artificial intelligence company Glance to make this experience available on DirecTV Gemini devices starting next year. “We’re making TV a place to lean on instead of leaning on each other,” says Rajat Wanchoo, group vice president of commercial partnerships at Glance Edge. “We want to give users the chance to leverage the advances that have been made in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV.”
DirecTV devices currently display Google Wallpapers when left idle. But soon, if you leave your TV idle for 10 minutes, Glance AI will take its place. A carousel of images will appear, which you can access by scanning the QR code on the screen. You’ll be prompted to download the Glance mobile app and upload a photo of yourself or someone else. You can also employ the ‘create your moment’ feature to include yourself in a 30-second AI-generated video.
You can further customize the image or video by speaking to the remote control, such as asking it to change the color or style of clothing it places you in. Wanchoo says Edge that Glance does not create screensavers surrounding a specific product, but instead performs a reverse image search for items similar to those generated by the AI. “No brand is pushing a product on you,” Wanchoo says, adding that Glance has 1 trillion SKUs with which it can match AI-generated images. If you decide to purchase the product, you will need to complete the transaction on your phone.
Glance plans to place AI ads in even more areas of the TV. “This allows us to integrate solutions across different TV locations,” says Glance Chief Operating Officer Mansi Jain. “We’re starting with a screensaver, but tomorrow… we’ll be able to integrate it into the TV launcher.”