Netflix announced on Thursday, July 17, that it has used generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to create visual effects that were first seen on screen in one of its original series, using a technology that has caused concern across the American film industry.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos praised AI and called it a tremendous opportunity that will help creators not only make films and series at a lower cost but also better.
Sarandos cited the Argentine science fiction series “El Eternauta,” where the producers wanted to show a building collapsing in Buenos Aires—a visual effect that would have been beyond the project’s budget. However, the team partnered with Eyeline Studios, a production innovation group at Netflix, to create the dramatic scene using AI.
“That VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with traditional VFX tools and workflows,” Sarandos said during the company’s second-quarter investor call on Thursday.
This sequence, according to Sarandos, is the first GenAI finale footage to appear on screen in a Netflix original series or film.
AI has been a hot topic in Hollywood since the 2023 Writers, Actors, and Related Workers Movement, which led to new guidelines for the use of the technology. The biggest concern in the industry is that AI could replace human work.
Another co-CEO, Greg Peters, said that Netflix could find other ways to use generative AI to improve the customer experience—including giving viewers the ability to use spoken words to find something to watch.
“Saying ‘I want to watch a film from the ’80s that’s a dark psychological thriller,’ (and getting) some results back … you just couldn’t have done in our previous experiences,” said Peters. “So that’s super-exciting.”
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Peters believes that advertising is another opportunity for creative artificial intelligence, as brands and marketers want to create engaging content.
“We think these generative techniques can decrease that hurdle iteratively over time and enable us to do that in more and more spots,” said Peters.
Reuters’s reporting contributed to this article.