The footage appears in the Argentinian series El Atonata, and AI was apparently used to help create a scene of a building falling down, which Sarandos is reported to have said was achieved 10 times as fast as it normally would have been and that it cost less. (And we’re sure all of that cost-saving will trickle down to us subscribers.) “We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper. There are AI-powered creator tools. So this is real people doing real work with better tools,” Sarandos said on the call. “Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualization and shot-planning work, and certainly visual effects. It used to be that only big-budget projects would have access to advanced visual effects like de-aging.”
The “AI is a tool that artists can use” stance is not totally without merit, but to suggest that pre-production use of AI tools for planning purposes is the same thing as the wholesale generation of AI footage would be inaccurate. The 2023 Writers Guild strike helped win protections against AI-generated scripts, but studios left the door open to using generated video so long as, in the words of a New York Magazine story on the subject, “a human is nominally in charge and the unions are given a chance to bargain over terms.”
Netflix’s other co-CEO Greg Peters said on the same call that the streamer will start using AI in other areas of the company, including for search functions and advertising. The call also revealed that Netflix’s revenue was up 16% from one year ago, and that they could claim $3.13 billion in profit for quarter two.
