Netflix earlier announced its second quarter financial report for fiscal year 2025, with revenue reaching $110.8 billion, a 16% increase compared to the same period last year. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos also made a rare revelation that its original science fiction seriesDeep Space Eternal Flight During the production of "The Eternauts," visual effects produced by generative AI were used for the first time, marking the entry of Netflix's original content into the era of AI creation.
Ted Sarandos explained that a building collapse visual effects scene in the series "Deep Space Forever" was created with the help of generative AI tools. This not only saved significant time but also significantly reduced costs, allowing series teams that previously couldn't afford high-end visual effects budgets to easily produce film-quality footage. Sarandos also emphasized that this AI-generated content is the first time that this final image has appeared in a Netflix original series or film.
"This is an exciting experiment that not only makes content production cheaper, but also gives creators the opportunity to achieve visual effects that were previously difficult to achieve," said Ted Sarandos. If this special effect were produced using traditional methods, the completion time might be extended by 10 times, which is almost an unaffordable challenge for small and medium-budget TV series.
Adapted from the classic Argentinian science fiction comic of the same name, "Deep Space Forever" stars renowned actor Ricardo Darín. Set after a mysterious global snowstorm, the protagonist leads a group of survivors in a quest to uncover the truth. Numerous scenes required depicting unusual weather conditions, urban destruction, and futuristic devices, posing a significant visual challenge.
However, generative AI remains a controversial technology within the entertainment industry. As AI tools like Midjourney, Runway, and Sora gradually enter the audiovisual production pipeline, many creators worry that AI will replace visual artists, special effects artists, and even actors in some roles.
In the past,Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) also went on strike with producers for three months over AI issues, calling for clearer regulations on the application of generative AI.
Despite this, Ted Sarandos still emphasized that AI should be seen as an "assistive tool" rather than a replacement for existing staff. He believes that when generative AI can help creators with limited budgets complete content that originally required high resource production, the entire creative ecosystem will benefit.
Netflix did not disclose whether other original content has been produced using AI, but it is foreseeable that as technology develops and its application scope expands, the role of generative AI in the audio-visual industry will become more critical, which is bound to trigger more discussions on the authenticity of content and the ethics of creation.
