Netflix admitted throughout its earnings name 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 mentioned that generative AI was particularly used for a VFX shot within the post-apocalyptic drama, however the transfer is one in all a number of methods Netflix is embracing AI.
In response to Sarandos, the creators of The Eternaut wished to incorporate a shot of constructing collapsing in Buenos Aires, and fairly 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 capable of obtain an incredible outcome with exceptional velocity,” Sarandos shared in the course of the earnings name. “In reality, that VFX sequence was accomplished 10 instances quicker 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 funds,” Sarandos says, as somebody with some enter on the present’s funds. The chief says that The Eternaut options “the very first Gen AI closing footage to look on display screen in a Netflix unique collection or movie.” Clearly, the present can also be a prototype for the way Netflix can keep away from prices it does not need to swallow sooner or later.
Staff within the leisure trade haven’t taken kindly to the usage of generative AI. Labor strikes — together with the not too long ago resolved SAG-AFTRA online game strike — have made securing protections towards AI a central problem. The Oscar-nominated movie The Brutalist got here below hearth in 2024 for utilizing AI instruments 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 advertisements 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, however it might assist to normalize a expertise that many creatives stay actively towards.
