Netflix is already utilizing generative AI in its authentic reveals

Netflix admitted throughout its earnings call on Thursday that it used generative AI to create VFX in The Eternaut, a Netflix authentic from Argentina that was launched in April 2025. The corporate’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated that generative AI was particularly used for a VFX shot within the post-apocalyptic drama, however the transfer is considered one of a number of methods Netflix is embracing AI.

In line with Sarandos, the creators of The Eternaut wished to incorporate a shot of constructing collapsing in Buenos Aires, and moderately than contract a studio of visible results artists to create the footage, Netflix used generative AI to create it. “Utilizing AI powered instruments, they had been in a position to obtain a tremendous outcome with exceptional velocity,” Sarandos shared through the earnings name. “Actually, that VFX sequence was accomplished 10 instances sooner than it might have been accomplished with… conventional VFX instruments and workflows.”

The shot “simply would not have been possible for a present on that price range,” Sarandos says, as somebody with some enter on the present’s price range. The chief says that The Eternaut options “the very first Gen AI ultimate footage to seem on display screen in a Netflix authentic sequence or movie.” Clearly, the present can also be a prototype for a way Netflix can keep away from prices it would not need to swallow sooner or later.

Staff within the leisure business haven’t taken kindly to using generative AI. Labor strikes — together with the not too long ago resolved SAG-AFTRA video game strike — have made securing protections in opposition to AI a central problem. The Oscar-nominated movie The Brutalist came under fire in 2024 for using AI tools throughout manufacturing. Past that, whether or not generative AI fashions had been illegally skilled on copyrighted materials continues to be an open query.

Netflix plans to make use of generative AI to create ads for its ad-support Netflix subscription, and the corporate is reportedly testing a brand new search characteristic powered by OpenAI fashions. Utilizing generative AI in manufacturing might sound par for the course for an organization that is already invested, but it surely might assist to normalize a expertise that many creatives stay actively in opposition to.