Re:A Kaggle Grandmaster cheated in $25k AI contest with hidd...
by endorphone on Thursday January 23, 2020 @12:34PM
(#22129622)
"They did not implement the winning solution as is"
Shortly after that contest finished Netflix removed the five star rating system, and dramatically subdued the recommendation engine. Now the vast majority of the content surfacing is universal beyond some small category filtering (e.g. You like crime dramas and horrors so here's a bunch of the most popular stuff from those categories).
Now they have a "match" rating that I have not met a single person who finds useful (it is almost at the point of farce and seems more like a randomization engine).
A lot of money and talent went into something that Netflix clearly decided just wasn't important or useful enough for them. Now they just push Don't F*ck With Cats on everyone.
They did not implement the winning solution as is, but a lot of good stuff came from the winning teams, including techniques (such as SVD) that are in use as of today (or maybe a few years back).
> just a nonsense engine
No, it is safe to assume the recommendation engine of Netflix is close to the state-of-the-art. A lot of money and talent went into it.