I Tried Tubi on ChatGPT and I Liked It.
OpenAI is working hard to turn ChatGPT into an app platform that lets you access apps like Adobe Photoshop , Canva, and Apple Music right from the AI chatbot interface—and now Tubi has become the first video streaming app available on ChatGPT.
ChatGPT’s search window doesn’t let you download movies and TV shows directly, but you can search for titles and see what’s available in the Tubi library. The idea is to always give you a choice of what to watch next: simply tell ChatGPT and Tubi what you’re looking for and get personalized results.
As an avid movie and TV show lover, I was looking forward to testing it out once it became available.
What can Tubi do inside ChatGPT?
The app portal can be found in the left navigation bar of ChatGPT on your computer or mobile device: find the Tubi app, click “Connect ” on its description page, and it will then be accessible via the “+ ” (plus sign) menu in the ChatGPT search window. You can also access it by mentioning “@tubi” in any of your searches.
My first question was what to watch next, as I’m a fan of classic action films like The Fugitive and Crimson Tide , and Tubi didn’t disappoint: the selection of movies like Enemy of the State , No Exit , and American Marshals (a lesser-known sequel to The Fugitive ) was near perfect, and included plenty of other similar films I’d already seen and enjoyed.
Tubi can also use user ratings. I asked about the most popular TV shows of the 2020s, and the service offered fairly obvious options like “Severance,” “Succession,” and “Andor.” However, none of these are available on Tubi—when using the ChatGPT integration, I repeatedly encountered errors accessing the Tubi catalog, and in those cases, the service simply reverted to more general recommendations.
I wanted to see if Tubi would recommend Drive (which is available on the platform), so I asked for a recommendation for “a hard-boiled 2011 thriller based on a book and set in Los Angeles.” That might have been too many suggestions, but I ended up getting the exact movie I was looking for, showing that ChatGPT and Tubi have access to sufficiently accurate metadata to find these kinds of options.
I also asked Tubi to recommend “classic historical TV series” to see if Tubi would offer anything new I hadn’t heard of before. The recommendations were fairly limited, and I didn’t find anything particularly interesting to watch, but given that the AI is working within the confines of Tubi’s library, the results were quite acceptable.
You don’t have to use Tubi exclusively in ChatGPT to get recommendations. You can also ask to see what’s trending on the platform or test your knowledge of TV shows and movies by playing Tubi’s quiz: just ask “test my movie knowledge” (or something similar) to launch it.
Advantages and disadvantages of AI-powered search.
There’s something appealing about being able to search for “dreamy 2000s movie, suitable for adults and teens, with a wistful, melancholy vibe” instead of simply scrolling through thousands of titles in the “drama” category. It’s precisely this kind of nuance and natural dialogue that AI-powered bots, with or without Tubi, now offer (and they’re back with Lost in Translation , which fits the bill quite well).
You can perform these searches in the standard ChatGPT, though the Tubi integration allows you to narrow your search to only the movies and TV shows you can actually watch on the free platform—and if you’re looking to watch something specifically on Tubi, it’s a convenient way to immediately filter your selection without any additional steps.
I can certainly imagine using a recommendation tool like this again in the future, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. Sure, ChatGPT and other AI-powered bots always sound convincing, but that’s intentional: they don’t admit they don’t have suitable options and will always suggest something, regardless of how closely (or inaccurately) it matches your query.
Ultimately, the AI models ChatGPT and Tubi rely on haven’t watched movies or TV shows, been to a movie theater, or experienced any emotions. Whether you’re entering your queries into Tubi’s new tool or browsing the “recommended” list on any streaming service, you’re relying on algorithms and metadata.
It’s not the same as asking a trusted friend or relative for a recommendation—or, even more so, reading a recommendation from someone who actually lived through some of the events depicted on screen.
I’m concerned that AI could make our movie and TV viewing experience more repetitive and formulaic with its recommendations—just as it generates repetitive, formulaic text and cover art —so while I’ll likely run Tubi inside ChatGPT again in the future, I’ll always include human recommendations in my curated selections. And I’ll still spend 20 minutes scrolling through my feed looking for hidden gems—as inefficient as it may be, it’s by chance that I’ve discovered some of my favorite movies.