Warner Bros has announced that it is inflicting testing a new format on select iPhone users in the US: HBO Max Shorts. As if vertical video weren’t bad enough, the media giant has says that the clips are powered by an AI tool …

The company says AI suggests the clips and human editors make the final decision.

“HBO Max Shorts” is designed to help users discover something to watch by highlighting iconic and memorable scenes from the HBO Max library in a vertical, scrollable feed […]

The clips for this feature are powered by an AI tool built in-house, which helps human editors select and verticalize content by using machine learning algorithms that utilize scene-level metadata to comb through thousands of hours of titles and suggests the most compelling, high-impact scenes for discovery. Once the tool has suggested these clips, HBO Max editors decide which best represent the stories viewers love [and the] clips are then rendered in a new vertical video experience to ensure seamless playback.

Content is said to be customized to your tastes based on your watch history, and if a clip catches your interest, you can start watching immediately or add it to my list directly from the feed.

Warner Bros says that it’s currently being tested with a limited number of US iPhone users, but appears to have already made the decision that it will be rolled out across other devices and markets.

Please no. Breaking news for Warner Bros: phones can be held horizontally as well as vertically.

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Image: Warner Bros