Netflix is already utilizing generative AI in its unique reveals

Netflix admitted throughout its earnings call on Thursday that it used generative AI to create VFX in The Eternaut, a Netflix unique 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 needed to incorporate a shot of constructing collapsing in Buenos Aires, and relatively than contract a studio of visible results artists to create the footage, Netflix used generative AI to create it. “Utilizing AI powered instruments, they have been in a position to obtain an incredible consequence with exceptional velocity,” Sarandos shared in the course of the earnings name. “In reality, that VFX sequence was accomplished 10 occasions sooner than it may have been accomplished with… conventional VFX instruments and workflows.”

The shot “simply would not have been possible for a present on that finances,” Sarandos says, as somebody with some enter on the present’s finances. The manager says that The Eternaut options “the very first Gen AI last footage to seem on display screen in a Netflix unique collection 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.

Employees within the leisure trade 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 towards AI a central concern. 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 have been illegally skilled on copyrighted materials remains 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, nevertheless it may assist to normalize a know-how that many creatives stay actively towards.