Amazon Music's New Topics' Feature Uses AI to Suggest Podcast Episodes

Amazon Music launched Topics on Tuesday, a new AI-driven feature intended to help you easily find related podcasts based on the subjects covered in a specific episode. 

By analyzing podcast transcriptions and descriptions to identify key topics, AI, assisted by human reviews, causes a Topics tag button. This button, found below each episode description, allows you to click and view a list of related podcast episodes on that topic. 

For example, Amazon provided a screenshot from the Amazon Music mobile app showing an episode from the Stuff You Should Know podcast discussing the effects of caffeine as a drug. Titled “Selects: The Duality of Caffeine,” the episode includes three Topics tags-”Caffeine,” ”Coffee,” and “Dopamine”-exhibited beneath the description.

Currently, the feature is available only to U.S. customers using the latest version of the Amazon Music mobile app on iOS or Android. It is being rolled out to “top podcasts,” with plans for broader expansion. 

With Topics, Amazon shows to be aiming to compete with Spotify. Last November, Spotfiy began Utilizing Google Cloud’s AI tools to analyze its podcasts and audiobooks in order to intensify personalized recommendations. This move followed user feedback that Spotify’s suggestions for related podcasts on home screens and under the “More like this” section were often irrelevant.