CBS Turns to Artificial Intelligence to Glean Viewers' Emotional Responses to TV Shows

CBS's research team is getting a faster read on how viewers respond emotionally to its TV shows -- by using the dispassionate logic of machines. The broadcaster is using the data-analytics platform developed by New York startup Canvs, which uses proprietary artificial-intelligence processing to parse natural-language comments. CBS started using the Canvs Surveys tool to automate the coding of open-ended responses to surveys fielded by its research team starting in the fourth quarter of 2018. It now uses Canvs to process feedback on its entire slate of programming and tentpole events, including viewer response to this month's Super Bowl LIII and Grammy Awards broadcasts. The real power of the AI system is its ability to crunch unstructured data far more efficiently than human researchers can, said Radha Subramanyam, chief research and analytics officer at CBS.