Avoiding the creeping scourge of AI has never been harder than it is right now. The job- and environment-destroying, easily manipulated tech bro boondoggle has infiltrated pretty much all we do, from social media to our online photos and communication to those infuriating minutes you spend yelling “Representative!” to bypass an impenetrably chipper chatbot. And while the list of entertainment professionals decrying the insidious process by which puny humans are erased from the movie and TV-making process is growing (with a few disappointing exceptions), one Netflix executive over the weekend essentially chuckled at viewers’ principled stands against the encroaching technology.
“[AI] is being used in pre-visualization, production design, working out set-dressing concepts ahead of time, in editing and of course in VFX,” Netflix senior director of production for Asia-Pacific Sung Q Lee told attendees at a industry panel for the Busan International Film Festival. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee stated that “about 300” Netflix offerings have already beamed their way onto the streamer in the past few years, whether viewers like it or not. Netflix has been cagy in the past about its AI policies, but Lee’s comments indicate just how widespread the technology has become. (No list of movies and/or TV series utilizing AI was provided by Lee.)
Joining Lee onstage at Netflix’s Creative Asia event, Korean director and AI-booster Kang Yun-sung chimed in to tout the technology’s benefits, at least for filmmakers looking to save a few bucks. Noting of his upcoming, AI-aided film The Gulf Of Aden, Kang stated, “When we calculated how much we’d save on The Gulf of Aden for financing, it came to a reduction of around 40 percent. That’s not just from replacing CG and VFX. The shoot itself was streamlined, and that cut down our production time to some extent.”
Of course, the director doesn’t mention the loss of industry jobs this cost- and short-cutting represents, although both speakers suggested a cultural difference between East and West when it comes to AI, claiming that it’s mainly Hollywood making a fuss over what otherwise is considered a useful tool. Kang recently partnered with self-described “AI filmmaker” Kwon Han-seul to produce last year’s Run To The West, Korea’s “first fully AI-assisted feature,” which bombed hard at the box office and with critics of both its crappy visuals and otherwise. Still, while all-out AI slop may not be ready to prop up a major feature film, Netflix exec Lee let slip that the technology is already seeping into what you watch without your knowledge.
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