More than 80 per cent of the TV shows people watch on Netflix are discovered through the platform's recommendation system. That means the majority of what you decide to watch on Netflix is the result of decisions made by a mysterious, black box of an algorithm. Netflix uses machine learning and algorithms to help break viewers' preconceived notions and find shows that they might not have initially chosen. To do this, it looks at nuanced threads within the content, rather than relying on broad genres to make its predictions. This explains how, for example, one in eight people who watch one of Netflix's Marvel shows are completely new to comic book-based stuff on Netflix.

Netflix Inc. wants subscribers to know it's looking out for them. For instance, the average Netflix subscriber might not guess that its dark superhero drama "Jessica Jones" might strike similar chords as the zany hijinks of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Netflix is happy to help you make the connection. Much of the attention showered on the streaming-video giant in recent years has focused on its appetite for original content and for creators to produce it. "We want to appeal to as many different people as possible, and appeal to the many moods that each person has," said Netflix's vice president of product innovation, Todd Yellin.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days – it's even being deployed to improve your movie-watching experience. Todd Yellin, vice-president of innovation at Netflix, told an audience at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week that the streaming giant has been using AI to analyse each shot and adjust the compression accordingly to try and hit a sweet spot where the quality isn't noticeably affected while at the same time improving delivery of what you're watching. "We're allergic to rebuffering", Yellin said, explaining that the aim is to improve the experience for the growing number of people who watch Netflix content on mobile devices. The technology is called Dynamic Optimzer, and Yellin said it will be introduced "some time in the next couple of months". Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer won't be getting her bonus or her stock award after an independent investigation found that senior executives at the company mishandled the two huge breaches, NPR reported on Thursday.

This morning, a gaggle of journalists and I huddled around a table full of smartphones, watching a clip from Netflix's Stranger Things. There was plenty of grain and blockiness to be sure, but it was sufficiently -- even perfectly -- watchable. The kicker: That surprisingly decent video is what Netflix told us to expect on a 100 kilobit/second data connection. That's a fraction of a fraction the LTE speeds we're used to in the US, but all too common in other parts of the world. Netflix considers itself a global television service, and since its international launch last year, it has seen countries new to the service lean on smartphones and tablets for their streaming video fixes.

Annoying pauses in your streaming movies are going to become less common, thanks to a new trick Netflix is rolling out. It's using artificial intelligence techniques to analyze each shot in a video and compress it without affecting the image quality, thus reducing the amount of data it uses. The new encoding method is aimed at the growing contingent of viewers in emerging economies who watch video on phones and tablets. "We're allergic to rebuffering," said Todd Yellin, a vice president of innovation at Netflix. "No one wants to be interrupted in the middle of Bojack Horseman or Stranger Things."