NETFLIX has admitted to using generative AI to create visual effects in a new original TV show – are you able to spot it?
The streaming giant confirmed the move in its latest earnings call, with co-CEO Ted Sarandos saying they traded in traditional VFX for generative AI in one scene.
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Doing so was not only faster, but much cheaper than outsourcing the shot to a traditional VFX house, Engadget first reported.
Creators of the sci-fi Netflix original, The Eternaut, wanted a collapsing building sequence to anchor a key moment in the story.
But to detail such a scene would have required VFX that was apparently out of budget for the Argentine post-apocalyptic drama.
“Using AI-powered tools, they were able to achieve an amazing result with remarkable speed,” Sarandos said.
“In fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with… traditional VFX tools and workflows.”
Sarandos added that the shot “just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show on that budget.”
Generative AI, or Gen AI, is a type of artificial intelligence that can create text, images, music, and videos from prompts given to it by humans.
This content can be in all kinds of style – cartoonish, or even hyper-realistic, and therefore difficult to distinguish from real life.
Netflix has reportedly got plans to roll out AI-generated adverts for ad-tier subscribers in 2026.
The company is also testing a new search feature powered by OpenAI models, according to Bloomberg.
But The Eternaut marks a milestone, becoming “the very first Gen AI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix original series or film,” Sarandos said.
The shift towards generative AI is already happening within Hollywood.
Films like 10-time Oscar nominee The Brutalist and Late Night with the Devil faced backlash for even light AI involvement.
The issue is already on the radar of SAG-AFTRA, a union whose members went on strike against AI use in video games last summer.
“The video game industry generates billions of dollars in profit annually. The driving force behind that success is the creative people who design and create those games,” SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher, said at the time.
“That includes the SAG-AFTRA members who bring memorable and beloved game characters to life, and they deserve and demand the same fundamental protections as performers in film, television, streaming and music: fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the AI use of their faces, voices and bodies.”
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