As the entertainment industry considers when and how to use generic AI in filmmaking, Netflix is leaning in. In its quarterly earnings report released Tuesday afternoon, Netflix wrote letter to investors It is “extremely well-positioned to effectively take advantage of ongoing advances in AI.”
Netflix doesn’t plan to use generic AI as the backbone of its content, but it believes the technology has potential as a tool to make creatives more efficient.
“It takes a great artist to create something great,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said on Tuesday’s earnings call. “AI can give creatives better tools to enhance their overall TV/movie experience for our members, but it doesn’t automatically make you a great storyteller if you’re not.”
Earlier this year, Netflix said this used generative AI The Argentinian show “The Eternanaut” featured a building collapse scene for the first time in the final footage. Since then, the filmmakers of “Happy Gilmore 2” used generative AI to make characters appear younger in the film’s opening scene, while the producers of “Billionaire’s Bunker” used the technology as a pre-production tool to envision wardrobe and set design.
“We believe AI will help us and our creative partners tell stories better, faster and in new ways,” Sarandos said. “We’re all involved, but we’re not chasing novelty for novelty’s sake here.”
AI has been a controversial topic In the entertainment industry, as artists worry that LLM-powered tools that use their work as training data without consent have the potential to negatively impact their jobs.
As a bellwether from Netflix, it seems that studios are more likely to use generic AI for special effects rather than replace actors’ roles – even if a hey actor There was an uproar among Hollywood actors recently, despite no gigs being booked yet (as we know). However, these behind-the-scenes AI uses still have the potential to impact visual effects jobs.
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This debate escalated recently when ChatGPT creator OpenAI unveiled sora 2 The audio and video generation model, which was released without guardrails that prevent users from creating videos of certain actors and historical figures. This week, Hollywood trade organization SAG-AFTRA and actor Bryan Cranston OpenAI urged To establish stronger protections against deepfaking actors like Cranston.
When an investor asked Sarandos about Sora’s impact on Netflix, he said it “starts to make sense” that content creators could be affected, but he’s less concerned about the film and TV business — or so he tells investors.
“We’re not worried that AI will replace creativity,” he said.
Netflix’s quarterly revenue rose 17% year over year to $11.5 billion, though it fell short of the company’s forecast.
