Netflix has used AI in one of its original shows for the first time in a bid to save costs and speed up production time.
The technology was used in a building collapse scene in the Argentinean science fiction series The Ethernauts.
“We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper,” the streaming giant’s co-chief executive Ted Sarandos told analysts after Netflix reported its second quarter results.
Netflix experienced a 16 per cent increase in revenue to $11 billion across the three months to the end of June compared to the same period last year, with profits totalling $3.1 billion compared to $2.1 billion in the same period last year.
Sarandos added that the technology allows production teams with smaller budgets to use advanced visual effects.
He added that in the case of The Ethernauts, the production team completed the collapse sequence 10 times faster than using traditional special effects tools.
“The cost of it just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show in that budget,” he said.
The move comes as professionals from creative industries including TV, movie and radio are increasingly voicing concerns about the use of AI in the entertainment industry and how it could replace human workforce.
In May, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) filed an unfair labour practice charge against Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Epic Games, alleging the company replaced actors’ work with artificial intelligence to generate Darth Vader’s voice in Fortnite without proper notice.
The complaint accused Llama Productions of failing “to bargain in good faith with the union” and making unilateral changes to employment terms without providing notice or bargaining opportunity.More recently, indie rock band The Velvet Sundown, which currently has more than 650,000 listeners on Spotify, has been causing a stir over suspicion it is completely AI-generated.
Gina Neff, professor at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, told the BBC that the group’s story emphasises the growing fear of losing control of AI.
“Whether this is an AI band may not seem important,” she told the BBC. “But increasingly, our collective grip on reality seems shaky. The Velvet Sundown story plays into the fears we have of losing control of AI and shows how important protecting online information is.”
