Source: forbes.com

Technology is disrupting the entertainment industry from every angle. The demand for niche independent fiction and fanfiction is growing. Streaming platforms are smashing movie premiere records; just last month, Netflix’s Murdery Mystery was viewed by over 13 million accounts in its first three days, which would have translated to a $120.5 million opening weekend. As exponentially more print and film media is produced, advancing machine learning algorithms have the potential to mine the best stories for publishing and movie deals from a global talent pool.    

Forbes Technology Council member Devashish Sharma, India’s Country Manager at Wattpad, believes machine learning technology is already discovering more diverse stories that most successfully resonate with consumers – and that it will continue to evolve and shape the entertainment space.

Wattpad, a global storytelling platform with over 70 million users, utilizes machine learning to select the next potential bestseller from over 500 million uploads on its platform by assessing grammar and vocabulary, as well as user engagement metrics. The company also recently launched its own publisher, Wattpad Books. Dozens of Wattpad stories have been adapted for film and TV; this year, its feature film After debuted in theaters around the world.

Sharma believes machine learning technology cuts costs, lowers investment risk and shifts the entertainment industry to a much more satisfying and diverse consumer-driven model. 

“Traditionally, if a few powerful people think a movie or book will be a hit, they’ll spend hundreds of millions of dollars to produce it on little more than gut instinct. But a global content creation platform with machine learning insights offers Hollywood and the publishing industry a much better success rate based on real data,” Sharma says.