HBO Max has launched a feature called "HBO Max Shorts" that turns clips from its shows into short, vertical videos you can scroll through, similar to TikTok or Instagram Reels. An AI tool built in-house at HBO Max scans the platform's catalog to find the most interesting moments, and human editors then pick the best ones. The Verge

Here is how it works. Every show on HBO Max has behind-the-scenes data describing what happens in each scene. The AI tool searches through that data instead of watching every second of video, which would take too long. It flags the moments it thinks are most compelling, and then real people, editors who know the shows, review those choices and decide which clips actually make the cut. The final clips play in a vertical format designed for smooth scrolling within the HBO Max app. The Verge

HBO Max plans to expand Shorts to more devices and countries over time. Sports content will be added as part of that expansion. The feature is also expected to improve as people use it, meaning that what you skip, replay, or watch all the way through will help the system get better at picking clips. The Verge

The broader context here is that every major streaming platform faces the same problem: there is more content available than anyone can browse through. Short, vertical video has become the main way people discover new things to watch, especially younger audiences, thanks to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. A streaming service that can automatically pull interesting clips from its own library and present them in a format people already use on their phones gains a powerful way to help viewers find shows they might otherwise never encounter.

The fact that HBO Max built this tool themselves, rather than paying another company for the technology, matters. It means HBO Max controls how the AI decides which scenes are exciting, how it avoids giving away spoilers, and how it improves over time. It also means HBO Max carries the full cost of building and maintaining the system.

In this author's view, the decision to keep human editors in the loop is the most important part of this setup. An AI picking clips on its own would likely choose moments that look dramatic but give away major plot twists, or that misrepresent what a show is actually about. A person who knows the story can catch those problems. The open question is whether HBO Max can keep enough editors involved as the catalog grows and the feature expands to live sports, where highlights work very differently than scenes from a scripted drama.

For anyone watching this space, HBO Max Shorts is a real example of AI-assisted content discovery moving into a premium streaming app. The individual pieces are not new. What is new is putting them all together: a system that scans the catalog, picks scenes, formats them as vertical video, and serves them in a scrollable feed, all within one app. Whether this catches on across the streaming industry or stays a niche experiment will depend on whether viewers actually engage with it.