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 considered one of a number of methods Netflix is embracing AI.
Based on Sarandos, the creators of The Eternaut wished to incorporate a shot of constructing collapsing in Buenos Aires, and moderately than contract a studio of visible results artists to create the footage, Netflix used generative AI to create it. “Utilizing AI powered instruments, they had been capable of obtain an incredible outcome with outstanding pace,” Sarandos shared through the earnings name. “Actually, that VFX sequence was accomplished 10 instances sooner 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 price range,” Sarandos says, as somebody with some enter on the present’s price range. The manager says that The Eternaut options “the very first Gen AI remaining footage to seem 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.
Employees within the leisure business haven’t taken kindly to using generative AI. Labor strikes — together with the not too long ago resolved SAG-AFTRA online game strike — have made securing protections in opposition to AI a central subject. 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 had been illegally skilled on copyrighted materials continues 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 a corporation that is already invested, but it surely might assist to normalize a know-how that many creatives stay actively in opposition to.
