Researchers use machine learning to analyse movie preferences

Could behavioural economics and machine learning help to better understand consumers' movie preferences? A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of West England, and the Alan Turing Institute dove deeper into this question, in a fascinating study that combines behavioural economics, business and AI. Marco Del Vecchio, Alexander Kharlamov, Glenn Parry, and Ganna Pogrebna used their diverse skillsets to develop tools that could help the media industry to better understand what content viewers really want to see. Currently, the motion picture, media and entertainment industry selects content offerings based on top-down decisions, typically informed by expertise, experience, surveys and focus groups. "Our main motivation was to understand whether and to what extent we can put viewer perceptions at the heart of the equation," the researchers said.